The Kids Aren't Alright
by FromInfinityToBeyond
Summary: My first story! It probably won't have a proper Dramione romance element to it but it's a Draco & Hermione adventure/action story from year 6 onwards (follows the book plot & it's Hermione's POV). I suck at summaries but basically Hermione sees Draco crying instead of Harry (so cliche..sorry guys). Please read and review! :)
1. Crucio

Hermione ran up the stairs as if her life depended on it. Technically, it did. Professor Vector had very unprofessionally thrown a large amount of course on his students in the past two weeks. Hermione was already distracted by all the madness that had taken place that year. Although, every Hogwarts year was full of madness, Hermione knew that well enough. Now that Katie Bell had returned to school at last, Hermione wished she could remember something about the necklace. For all they knew, they could be living with a murderer. Snape was also becoming increasingly difficult to cope with and Hermione was afraid that she wouldn't be able to improve the 'exceeds expectations' level of performance in Defense Against The Dark Arts. The slightest bit of relief only came from the fact that Ron had broken up with Lavender. Of course, not that Hermione cared too much…it was just that he was just happier now. That's all. Between all that and Ron being poisoned _and_ the upcoming Quidditch match (Hermione did care about that), Hermione was sure her head was going to explode.  
That must have been the reason she miscalculated the compatibility of Adalbert Waffling with Derwent Shimpling in her Arithmancy essay. Hermione hoped desperately that Professor Vector would dismiss the mistake but she felt sure that he won't. And anyway, a voice in the back of her head told her that even if he did, it would be unfair. If she had made such a careless mistake such as that, the least she could do was pay for it.  
So many thoughts ran though Hermione's head that it was hardly surprising for her to accidentally end up in front of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom instead of Professor Vector's classroom. Oh well, they were on the same floor. Hermione was just about to turn around when she heard Moaning Myrtle talking to someone. Hermione knew Moaning Myrtle had a habit of talking to herself loudly but this time, she was whispering. And her voice sounded sympathetic instead of crabby.  
Hermione cautiously glanced inside the bathroom. She didn't want to be caught and judged as rude for eavesdropping on someone's conversation with Moaning Myrtle but then again, she didn't want someone to actually have to discuss their problems with Moaning Myrtle in the first place. That was far too pitiful. Suppose it was some gullible first year? As a prefect, Hermione felt strongly that she should rescue the poor child. She slid in closer to one of the stalls but made sure to stay hidden behind it.  
"Don't…tell me what's wrong…I can help you," Moaning Myrtle sounded unusually genuine.  
Hermione slowly moved closer to the edge of the stall and glanced peeked out. Draco stood in front of the mirror. He was stooping low against the sink and his hair looked tousled.  
Draco Malfoy.  
Hermione had forgotten that he too, was a part of the gigantic problem that was her life (sorry harry, of course you have it worse). Draco's strange behavior this year did worry Hermione. His confident, cocky, rude and social (at least with his fellow Slytherins) personality was replaced by constant brooding, nervousness, and a lonesome attitude. He was still rude of course, but now he looked as though most of his offenses were some sort of a defense for him. Against what though? Hermione didn't have time to wonder all this. She tried her best to stay as quiet as possible.  
"No one can help me," said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking.  
"I can't do it…I can't…it won't work…and unless I do it soon…he says he'll kill me…"  
Hermione meant to slide back against her stall where she would remain hidden so that she could process this information. But she couldn't. Not when she witnessed Draco Malfoy begin to cry. Actually cry. Tears flowed freely down his face as Hermione stood there perplexed with her face peering out behind the stalls. Malfoy shuddered and looked up into the cracked mirror…straight at Hermione.  
In one swift movement, his wand was in his hand and he shot a hex at Hermione's direction. Hermione let out an instinctive scream and managed to dodge Malfoy's hex by inches. The wall lamp blew up behind her and Hermione ducked down and drew her wand. Moaning Myrtle wailed loudly above her as Hermione shouted ' _expelliarmus!_ ' with her wand pointed towards the edge of the stall. She had obviously missed because she heard Malfoy yell from the other side of the bathroom ' _Cruci-'  
"_PROTEGO!" Hermione screeched with her hand outstretched in Malfoy's direction.  
Her eyes were closed tightly and it wasn't until Moaning Myrtle's bawling replaced the ringing in her ears that she opened them. Hermione half-expected herself to be writhing on the floor in pain. To feel pain. But she didn't. Apart from the shaking in her entire body, the dizziness and her heart pumping too loud for her to hear anything… Hermione felt fine. She slowly walked out from behind the stall and stopped dead in her tracks. Malfoy was uncontrollably jerking on the floor. He was also screaming but Hermione's ears couldn't sense that yet. His face was contorted with pain and his entire body was twitching disturbingly. Hermione's hand clasped her mouth and she let out a shriek. Moaning Myrtle's wailing had surpassed Draco's screams in terms of loudness.  
"MURDER! MURDERER IN THE BATHROOM!" she bellowed.  
Hermione turned around to see Snape run inside. His face darkened at the sight of Draco and he roughly pushed past Hermione and kneeled next to Malfoy. The bathroom was flooded, Hermione noticed. Snape began performing spells in an inaudible voice and Draco slowly began shaking less and less. His screams died down and soon he was lying on the floor unconscious. Snape turned towards the anxious Hermione.  
"I really must say Miss Granger, I wasn't expecting this from you"  
His voice sounded grave and was almost too low for her to hear.  
"I…I, I didn't…" she began. But what was the point? Would Snape believe that she had only backfired the curse that Malfoy had cast towards her? It was unlikely. Hermione wasn't even sure if she sounded honest to herself. She needed Dumbledore. Or even Professor McGonagall.  
Anyone but Snape.


	2. Malfoy Mystery

In.  
Out.  
Hermione forced herself to keep breathing slowly. Inhale. Exhale. She had to keep herself steady and calm. What happened to Malfoy wasn't her fault. If anything, he should be the one punished for trying to use the Cruciatus curse on her. But then again, having it backfired on you was punishment enough, no? Still, Hermione couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt. As she sat in front of Dumbledore's office, she could feel her heart beat rising again as footsteps approached the door.  
"Come inside Miss Granger"  
It was McGonagall. Hermione tentatively walked inside the office. Dumbledore's office barely looked anything like an office. Books crowded every inch of every shelf. Metal instruments and glass bottles containing silver liquids stood on small, circular tables. The room smelt faintly of lemons too, but Hermione didn't have time to take stare at everything. Snape stood in a corner and glared at her.  
"Miss Granger, would you please explain again, what happened in the first floor bathroom and how you arrived there in the first place?"  
Dumbledore's voice came out low. He didn't look angry, he looked exhausted. His head was stooping low and he clutched his mahogany table for support. He looked weary and completely drained of energy, so very unlike the first time Hermione saw him. Harry had talked about how Dumbledore looked weak and sapped and she had seen it too, on the few occasions he presented himself on the dinner feast but up close, the change looked tremendous.  
"Um, uh, yes...of course".  
Hermione went on to describe everything she saw and went into great detail to explain every action she made. She had told Snape everything as well but in the bathroom she had stuttered and was sure Snape hadn't believed a word. However, Dumbledore and McGonagall would believe her. She was sure of it. They knew she wasn't capable of using the Cruciatus curse on any living creature, much less a human. That may be the reason she hadn't been locked away yet. Snape didn't look her way as Hermione told her story; she found it easier to talk that way anyway. She told them everything except what Draco had said to Moaning Myrtle. She felt as though that was something only Dumbledore had to know. She didn't want Snape to know that she knew anything about Malfoy's plan…she actually didn't. But if Snape too, was involved, it would be best to stay silent for now.  
"Alright Miss Granger, we believe you. The Cruciatus curse is not something one can so easily use without losing a part of yourself to the Dark Arts." Dumbledore gazed at her again. "I don't think you've lost that part yet".  
Hermione sighed in relief.  
"Draco Malfoy has been sent to St. Mungos. Fortunately, he did not seem to have been hit by the curse very hard so I suppose he will be back in a few weeks. Now you may return to your common room, and I strongly urge you to not speak about your encounter with Mr. Malfoy to everyone."

Back in the common room, Hermione felt as though her head was floating. Everyone around her laughed and discussed Quidditch or played chess or listened to the radio, completely unaware or Hermione's bizarre afternoon. Ron spotted her on the corner sofa and shouted:  
"Oi, there you are! We've been searching everywhere for you. Where were you?"  
Behind him, Harry came into view as well. His hair had suddenly become long again and covered his scar. Why had Hermione just noticed that now? Harry and Ron seated themselves next to her and Hermione began telling her story. She didn't skip Malfoy's words to Moaning Myrtle this time. By the time she was done, they were the only three people left in the common room; everyone had left for some reason on the other.  
"Bloody hell," muttered Ron. "You sure you're alright?"  
It felt nice to have Ron ask her that but she honestly wasn't sure she was alright.  
"Yes, of course I'm fine", she answered hurriedly.  
Harry was lost in thought. "Malfoy's going to do something soon. I don't know what but it's going to be bad. He was crying! He's definitely being forced into by Voldemort."  
Ron cringed slightly at the name. "We don't know what it is though. And anyway, he isn't gonna be able to do anything soon because he's in St. Mungo's, remember?"  
Hermione sated quiet throughout all this. She just wanted to lie down on her soft bed and go to sleep forever. Forgetting all about Malfoy and Arithmancy and Voldemort and Snape and Ron and all the homework she had left to submit tomorrow.  
Suddenly she got up.  
"Well I have two essays of Transifguration and one Ancient Runes essay to finish so I'll be here studying. Now if you two would just stay silent…so I can focus…"  
Her voice trailed off as she began rummaging through her bag for parchments and a quill.  
"She really needs to sort out her priorities..." she heard Ron whisper to Harry.  
Harry laughed and Hermione couldn't help smiling at her empty parchment.

 **Please review and tell me what you think!**


	3. The Room Of Requirement

**I'm so sorry this is late. I just wanted a nice, long chapter…and I may have gotten distracted by Tom Felton's instagram account. Hehe..he. Right, so here it is. Please review and enjoy! I'm trying my best to pick up the pace :)**

The next few days passed in a daze. Hermione barely remembered anything. With the essays, the Quidditch match, Harry and Ginny getting together (Hermione _totally_ knew that was going to happen), and the Half-Blood Prince, Hermione could barely keep herself from jumping into bed for 3 whole days. Of course, that was completely out of the question. Imagine the amount of work she would miss!  
Hermione couldn't understand why Harry won't at least consider the possibility that the Half-Blood Prince could be female. That was misogyny! It fit perfectly…Eileen Prince! What more proof could Harry want? What frustrated her even further was how she had spent so long in the library for searching for the identity of that stupid Prince who both Harry and Ron loved so much. The woman (or 'man' as Harry thought) had caused nothing but trouble. She couldn't believe how Harry could trust her (or him) so blindly.

Hermione thought she had enough on her mind as she sleepily scanned the Daily Prophet at breakfast one morning, when Draco Malfoy walked into the Great Hall.  
It had been two weeks since the bathroom incident (Harry and Ron jokingly called it that even though it made Hermione want to vomit) and, thanks to Pansy Parkinson, rumors had spread around the school that Draco had been on the verge of creating a potion so dangerous and difficult to make, even Snape had tried to discourage him from venturing forth into such treacherous waters, but Draco had done it. He had named it 'D.M' and it was unclear to some whether that stood for 'Draco Malfoy' or 'Dark Magic'. Anyway, for his extra ordinary achievement, he was receiving a prize by the Minister of Magic: Rufus Scrimgeour and thus, Malfoy's disappearance from Hogwarts was only to meet the Minister and other great wizards and witches. Hermione wanted to gag listening to the First years speaking of Draco as a hero or a wizard mastermind, it was nauseating.  
Malfoy looked even paler than before and much more shaken up. His face looked hollow and his grey eyes no longer shone with evil as Hermione always thought they did before. He still bore the same bored and disgusted expression as he sat down next to Crabbe and Goyle, who Hermione thought looked slightly fearful of Draco as he approached them. Malfoy's return meant more trouble, and surely Harry's mood had taken a rather gloomy turn as they walked to Transfiguration.  
"You reckon Malfoy's going to do…whatever it is he was going to do…which was not good?" Ron asked lamely.  
"I have no idea. I don't understand why Dumbledore isn't taking it seriously," Harry commented. "I told him about how Malfoy and Snape are on to something after what Hermione heard him say in the bathroom" (Hermione coughed at this) "but it seems as though he honestly doesn't care at all!"  
Hermione couldn't make sense of it either.

After class, they all walked outside in the sunshine, to the weeping willow. Dropping their bags on the ground, Ron and Harry lay down on the grass and closed their eyes, soaking up the warm sun. Hermione opened her books but realized it was pointless trying, so she joined them in their journey to wasting a rare what-could-have-been-constructive afternoon, by lying idly on the grass.  
"I wonder how Hagrid is doing," Ron asked Harry. He was lying fairly close to Hermione and when she realized this, she suddenly felt jittery.  
"I think he's slowly recovering from Aragog's death, I saw him planting these large weeds on its...I mean his- grave.  
"You mean Giant Hogweeds," she corrected.  
"You know, we can't all get an 'Outstanding' in Herbology, Hermione," Ron complained.  
"It's not a magical plant Ron...but it is poisonous."  
"Harry opened his mouth to speak but then he caught sight of Ginny marching towards them, with a faint smile on her face.  
"Oi! Why are you smil-"Ron began but then he suddenly scrunched up his face, grunted and threw his head back on the ground. Both Harry and Ginny grinned at each other.

Hermione hadn't expected this year to end smoothly. Of course, if someone else were to judge the events that took place in her year, they wouldn't have called the year 'smooth' but she knew that this was as uneventful as it got. In fact, it made her feel a little scared.  
Something bad was going to happen. It always did. This time it was clear that with Draco's scheming, Dumbledore taking Harry on trips down the memory lane (it wouldn't have been that bad if all the memories weren't related to Voldemort) and the odd calm-before-the-storm atmosphere that surrounded her, something was definitely up, or more rightly: going to go down.  
Later on the same evening, when Harry was summoned by Dumbledore, Hermione decided to accompany him to his office. After sharing a somewhat awkward, yet fun conversation about his new relationship, they parted ways. She was afraid she hadn't performed her best in Potions this year and (of course Ron and Harry would've laughed at her if she told them this) Hermione just wanted Slughhorn's opinion on her work. All of a sudden, she felt a hard push from behind, making her fall face-forward on the ground. A clatter of metal objects hitting the ground sent a flash of pain through her head. She turned around to see a mortified-looking First year gaze back at her in fear.  
"I…I'm so sorry! I didn't see…I, I'm so sorry!" she stammered.  
"It's alright," Hermione consoled her. She forced herself to get up, showing as little discomfort as possible but the young girl was still in tears.  
"I'm fine! Really, just...be more careful next time. But it's alright," Hermione assured her, using her best soothing tone of voice despite the pain in her head. The First year still broke down into tears and ran off, leaving all her metal instruments lying on the floor next to a dazed Hermione.  
Hermione sighed deeply and thought about how if Ron had been here; he would've had to be kept from hurling abuses at the girl and chasing after her. She almost chuckled. She paced back and forth in the hall, collecting the instruments. _Where will I take them? I can't carry them. She probably brought them from the first floor. Ugh, if I go all the way down, how will I meet Professor Slughorn before dinner? I can't approach him afterward. That would look so improper and rude. I have to finish my 4 essays! Ouch, my arm hurts.  
_ Suddenly, Hermione heard a 'click' sound and she looked up. There was a door knob in the wall.  
That had definitely not been there before. Hermione scrunched up her face and opened her eyes again.

The Room of Requirement.  
It was here. This was the room. She had wished for a place to keep the instruments and it had given it to her. She remembered 'Aladdin' and how the Genie used to grant his every wish. She made a mental note to herself to ask her parents to tell her the story again sometime.  
Hermione gathered up the objects and pushed the door open. Everything was dark inside. _Lumos,_ Hermione whispered. The door clicked shut behind her. She moved further inside. A strange and random arrangement of shelves and cupboards surrounded her. She had to keep herself from bumping into them. The place was a mess; she had never before seen such a wide assortment of objects. There were books and cages, boxes and chairs, Hermione even thought she caught sight of a tiara. Her illuminated wand hung loosely in between her fingers. She was just about to give up and release all the instruments to fall crashing down when she heard a noise.  
It was laugh. It was a strange half-insane and half-genuinely happy laugh. It sounded familiar but Hermione didn't think she had heard anyone laugh like this before. As she tiptoed further, she found out she was right to find that laugh familiar.  
It was Malfoy.  
Hermione could barely make out his figure but the quick sight of his blonde hair gave him away. He was standing in front of a cupboard and laughing manically. Draco Malfoy had lost his mind. Hermione still felt afraid. He had achieved something or found something. Anything that made him this happy was bound to be bad _. I have to get to Dumbledore,_ she thought. But how was she supposed to get rid of the objects _and_ find her way through the dark since she couldn't possibly stay hidden anywhere else, beside the back of this cupboard with an illuminated wand. It seemed to her that the odds were definitely never in her favor.  
She had to get out of here fast and with any luck (luck...haha) before Draco turned his attention away from the dusty old cabinet. _Hold on…why would Draco be rejoicing over a cabinet? What's inside?_ Hermione forced herself to focus on escaping the room. The faster she escaped, the sooner she could get help. _Wingardium Leviosa,_ she whispered under her metal objects began levitating all around her, glowing in the pale light from her wand. She had to get rid of that too. _Nox.  
_ But what if she could stop Draco _and_ get help? Or at least get a look of what was inside the cabinet? _There's no way, it's too dark,_ she reminded herself. How will she find the door? Hermione was so focused on finding a way out that she lost her concentration over one of the flying objects above.  
CRASH!  
"Who's there?" Draco yelled.  
Gone was the boy who was giddy over a victory. The boy prepared to use unforgivable curses on 'mudbloods' was back. Fortunately, the item hadn't landed close to Hermione. She began tiptoeing near the cabinet that Draco was walking away from. He cautiously walked further into the darkness; soon his illuminated wand was the only thing Hermione could use to find him. She moved closer to the cabinet until its front was in view. She could obviously see nothing but darkness inside. But she couldn't escape either; not with Draco on the lookout near the door. Watchfully, she stepped closer to the cupboard. Draco's illuminated wand was nowhere in sight. That must mean he had gone much further away because no one could find their way in this pitch blackness. Why had he kept it so dark here? Hermione wondered. Her beat was beating furiously as she approached the cabinet. It was open but it was impossible see anything inside. _Get out of here_ , Hermione urged herself. _Inspect the cabinet later when you've played hero, get out!_ But where could she go? Draco could be anywhere near the door. She was close enough to reach it now. She drew her hand out fearfully and touched the door. She traced her fingers across the wood until she had felt the back of the cabinet.  
It was plain, solid wood.  
It was empty.  
Hermione saw light reflect the wood.  
"CONFRINGO!" she screamed turning around.  
"LEVICORPUS!" Draco roared.  
Her spell missed him and hit the cabinet. His didn't.  
Both of them got sucked into the cabinet and entered a dimension of nonexistence.


	4. Oblivion, Wands and Towers

Hermione was sure she was dead. Darkness enveloped her and she couldn't move her body, let alone feel it. Neither could she hear anything. Fear of failing was no longer Hermione's greatest fear. This place was it. Or at least, it was a tie now. This couldn't be the afterlife…was it purgatory? How long had she been here? Where was she? How long would she be trapped here? Her heart began pacing and she could feel herself hyperventilating more and more.  
 _Calm down, take a deep breath.  
But then I'll finish all the oxygen before I can find a way to escape! _Her panicked-side exclaimed. _  
If you're dead then you don't need oxygen, remember? And you're stuck here you might as well remain composed and not lose your head,_ she replied to herself _.  
_ What Hermione didn't know was that it had only been less than a minute since she had entered this strange place. She had finally regained composure and was recalling everything she knew about being trapped in a state of nothingness when she heard a grunt beside her.  
Draco.  
She had forgotten about him for the last thirty seconds. She had no idea how but she had and before she could worry about him, suddenly, it hit her. She was in the Vanishing Cabinet.  
"Arghh, what the hell? You mudblood Granger…" Draco clearly sounded angry. "Arghh, I...I can't move! Hearing Draco in distress actually seemed to clear Hermione's head.  
"Malfoy, where are we?" she asked him coolly.  
"I…ugh, I need to get out of here. Where's my bloody wand?!" Malfoy roared.  
"I didn't take it. I couldn't have, I'm stuck too remember? And even if I had…there's nothing you could do about it."  
Hermione knew provoking Malfoy wasn't going to make anything better, but she couldn't help herself.  
"This is all your bloody fault Granger. If you hadn't come poking your ugly, mudblood nose into this room, we wouldn't be here. And maybe you would've also lived a little longer…"  
Hermione sensed a smirk on Malfoy's face as he threatened her in his last line.  
"And how are you going to kill me Malfoy, when you're stuck in pitch darkness without a wand? I don't really care actually.  
"I'll find a way mudblood, don't worry about that"  
Hermione could hear Malfoy groan and grunt as if he was trying his best to move but he couldn't.  
"You broke the freaking thing by blasting it! It's bloody broken and that's why we're stuck here. I spent a year fixing it!"  
Malfoy then muttered a collection of swear words, half of which Hermione had never heard before so she couldn't care less.  
"Why the heck were you fixing it in the first place?"  
"Why should I tell you anything Granger? Ah yes, of course…I'm going to reveal my entire plan to you now that we're stuck here, right? I know how miserably you, Weasley and Potter have been tracking me, and now you think you can turn me into a Potter fan and sleep happily knowing that you turned a villain into a goody little idiot like yourself. The whole lot of you is pathetic!" Malfoy seethed.  
He took a deep breath and Hermione was sure he was done being cranky and immature. If he wanted to waste his time being an imbecile, it was up to him. She focused on breathing slowly. Graham Montague had appareted out of the cupboard, hadn't he? She could do it too.  
Destination, Determination and Deliberation.  
Malfoy must've heard her breathing loudly because he laughed mockingly. His voice echoed in Hermione's head and she lost her concentration…and her composure.  
"You're stuck in a body-bind curse, remember?" Malfoy sneered. "That means...in case your tiny little head hasn't understood yet, that you can't apparate out of here, mudblood."  
No, Hermione reassured herself. She could leave, she would leave. She couldn't stay in this place any longer, especially with Malfoy. All of a sudden, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from far away.  
Someone was out there. Or in there…but Hermione didn't care. As long as someone, apart from Malfoy was nearby. Or far away…  
"HELP!" she shouted.  
"No, no, no, ah…" Draco again began cussing but Hermione didn't care.  
"SOMEONE, HELP!"  
"Oh shut up Granger! You're barking mad," Draco groaned. And then, after a pause: "This is not happening, oh damn it!"  
Draco sounded as though he was having some sort of a fit of convulsions.  
Hermione couldn't even feel her body.  
Until now…  
"Ow! Malfoy get away!" Hermione screamed.  
"I'm not touching you Granger, what's the matter with you?"  
"I'm...I'm floating…"  
Judging by Malfoy's sharp inhale, he was too. Except, Hermione felt she was moving downwards, or bobbing up and down.  
She saw a light ahead of her, the tiny gleam made her heart race with happiness. She forgot all about Malfoy and as she floated closer to the light, she realized that the light was entering the cupboard from a crack in a door. _A door to what, though_? She caught sight of something outside, it was a painting. It looked familiar, but Hermione couldn't remember where she'd seen it. She then realized that Draco was nowhere to be seen.  
"HELP!" she called out. No one answered her.  
One thing Hermione figured out was that she was floating upside down. Her blood had somehow not accumulating all inside her head but she was definitely upside down.  
"No one's going to hear you," Malfoy's voice came from far behind. Hermione was floating backwards now, against her will."You're going to be stuck here until the jinx wears off, and that might take some time", Malfoy hissed.  
She was back with him now. Great. All of a sudden it hit her that she did know where the door way led. It led to Borgin and Burkes. Hermione's heart raced.  
"Malfoy, what are you doing?"  
"Getting out of here."  
Hermione could feel the static in the air as Malfoy attempted to apparate. But she could tell he was having trouble because, apart from the fact that he will still here after many failed attempts, the flickering light showed that his hand was trembling. He also lacked determination because he kept opening his eyes and writhing around in search of his wand. He couldn't focus properly being stuck in a dark non-existential place. Or maybe what he was planning to do scared him…  
"No, Malfoy. I mean, _what are you going to do when you get out?"_ Hermione snapped.  
"Well mudblood, if you stay out of my way, you'll find out" Draco spat. "Actually no, I've changed my mind. I think I'm going to kill you after all. You've caused far too much trouble."  
Hermione wasn't interested in Malfoy's threats. Especially not when he was stuck in limbo.  
"At least I'm not the one having trouble with simple apparition" Hermione remarked. She _was_ having trouble with it but that was only because of the jinx.  
"Shut the hell up mudblood. I need my wand, I can't leave without it."  
"Have you tried summoning it?"  
"Oh right, of course. How could I forget that? Wow, you're a genius Granger!"

Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated hard on controlling her body. Even if she could just feel something…her hand, her fingers…she just wanted to know if she had her wand. Maybe she could free herself from the jinx and disapparate from the cupboard. But if Malfoy had tried to summon his wand, shouldn't her wand have flown towards him if it was nearby? Did that mean both their wands were lost? Hermione's hopes fell. Malfoy was onto something _really_ horrible and if he got out before her, something bad would happen in Hogwarts.  
"Oh screw it," Malfoy muttered. His breathing slowed down again.  
He was going to disapparate.  
Hermione thought hard and fast.  
She closed her eyes again. She felt as though she was floating again, and when she opened her eyes, she saw that she was moving towards the light again. Malfoy grunted and she could feel him moving further away. It looked like he was stuck here for a little longer until he would stop floating around as well. As Hermione approached the door of the cabinet in Borgin and Burkes, she tried glancing at her hand and with the help of the tiny beam of light, she saw her wand. So she did have it. If only she could use the anti-jinx and free herself…  
"Ouch!" she cried suddenly. "Malfoy shove off!"  
"I can't…I-" he stopped in mid sentence. He saw her hand clutching her wand. Upside down, Hermione could see the shine in his eyes. Hermione scrunched up her face and begged her body to move the other way, instead she floated towards him and they collided. They're hands touched and in a split second, Malfoy had grabbed her wand. She couldn't feel it being snatched away, Malfoy hadn't even used his fingers, and it seemed to Hermione that her wand had just floated into his hand when his fingers touched it. Hermione couldn't help feeling angry at her wand's disloyalty.  
"Malfoy just think about this. Whatever you're planning on doing…is it worth it? You could talk to Dumbledore and he could fix things..." Hermione felt more and more desperate. She couldn't let Malfoy escape, not when he was going to do something bad.  
"Dumbledore, huh? The only thing he can fix-" Draco stopped in mid sentence. There was high pitched cackle outside and it sent shivers down Hermione's spine.  
The laugh belonged to the one and only Bellatrix Lestrange.  
"Draco will summon us soon, wait a moment Bellatrix." Someone else spoke. The voice was deep and hollow.  
"Ahh, damn it!" Malfoy grimaced."Not him…"  
"Not who Malfoy? What have you done?!" Hermione badgered.  
"SHUT UP GRANGER!" Malfoy bellowed. He was breathing hard and fast. He was definitely scared. If Bellatrix Lestrange and her death eater friends entered the cabinet, Hermione was definitely dead. This day just kept getting worse.  
Suddenly, there was a loud ' _crack_ ' sound and Draco had disappeared.  
"Oh, no, no, no…" Hermione whispered to herself.  
Her heart felt like it would burst out of her chest and she felt increasingly claustrophobic.  
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  
 _Destination, Determination and Deliberation._  
She felt a light shine on her face… a small, thin beam of light. It wasn't coming from Borgin and Burkes, though. Hermione heard a low voice come from far behind her, it muttered something but Hermione couldn't hear. The light disappeared.  
Suddenly, Hermione felt her body loosen up. She still couldn't move but slowly her head started floating upwards. She was probably floating upright finally. Her head felt clearer and she could breathe more easily. _She was getting out of here.  
_ After a few deep breaths, Hermione concentrated on apparting out of there. There was a loud _'crack'_ sound and she felt as though she was being suffocated. Every inch of her body felt as though it was being compressed into a ball until she felt as though she might explode.  
Suddenly it was over.

Hermione woke up behind a library shelf. It contained books on magical creatures. She remembered borrowing a few books from it. The library was empty so no one saw her sprawled on the floor. Hermione sat up and rubbed her head.  
 _Malfoy.  
_ The Vanishing Cabinet and Hermione's findings in there all came rushing back to her. She had to find Dumbledore. She stood up shakily and immediately broke into a sprint. _How long have I been unconscious? Has Malfoy already performed his task? What if I'm too late?  
_ In the corridor, she almost crashed into a confused Ron.  
"Oh, Ron! Oh Ron, you have to help me! What's Malfoy done?" she wheezed.  
"Malfoy..? What...I don't know! Where've you been? The Order's here."  
Ron paused for a while.  
"Ron…" Hermione squeaked.  
"The Dark Mark….it's here."  
A perplexed Ron and Hermione ran across the halls, bumping into terrified students as they went. The entire school was in pandemonium. At a turning in the hall, Ron crashed into Lupin.  
"What's happened?" Hermione cried.  
Lupin and Ron rubbed their heads for a moment and Lupin replied "No one's here. I don't understand, no one's inside the castle except us. No Death Eaters."  
Normally that would have eased Hermione's fretfulness but the Dark Mark had appeared above the school for a reason.  
"The Room of Requirement!" Hermione shrieked."They might be inside!"  
No one argued with her and they all darted towards it. The met Tonks on the way and she joined them and after running across it thrice, they entered. Lupin and Tonks made sure Ron and her stayed behind them.  
The room was empty. The cabinet looked untouched. With a little explanation from Hermione, Lupin cautiously opened the door of the cabinet.  
"There's no one inside. It's empty Hermione."  
"Then they can't be inside." She confirmed. "They must've apparted out of the cabinet then. Or they never entered inside"  
"Hermione how do you they would come from here, what's going-" Ron began.  
"We'll talk about this later," Lupin interrupted.  
They had just come out of the room when they heard a scream. They turned around to see a girl staring outside a window, several others joined her.  
"Someone just fell from top of the Astronomy tower!"  
Then there was another scream.  
"It's Dumbledore!"

Half an hour later, Harry, Ron and Hermione, along with a few teachers, members of the DA and the Order sat sullenly in the Hospital wing. Dumbledore was dead. Harry told them how Malfoy had arrived at the tower just after Snape had killed Dumbledore. Malfoy looked confused and had said something about it being "his task" but when Snape said he was too late, Malfoy didn't argue. They had both escaped out of the castle, along with Crabbe and Goyle. Ginny had spotted them in the grounds right in front of the Astronomy tower and since Malfoy was nowhere to be found, she and Neville had gone to investigate while Ron looked for Hermione. However, Crabbe and Goyle saw them coming and Crabbe hit Ginny with a ' _Reducto'_ spell and she had hit the wall and fallen unconscious. Neville had done his best but Crabbe started a magical fire that burned Hagrid's hut and Neville was hit by a body-bind jinx from Snape when he came out from the tower behind him. Lying in the hospital bed, Ginny still felt angry at herself for losing to the two Slytherin imbeciles.  
Hermione explained her side of the story to the group feeling hollow and numb.  
She glanced at Harry, who despite looking like he had been through hell and back (he basically had after all) returned her glance with a weak half-smile. That was when Hermione made a silent vow to herself that she was going to stick with Harry till the very end.

 ****

 **Wow, okay I hope guys enjoyed that. Now I'm gonna take a little break because I have a busy week ahead (and I'm dead tired) but I'll keep writing this week. I also have a bit of thinking to do about my next chapter and where I take the story from after this (yeah, I should've thought about that earlier, hehe). So stick around and please review! Have a great week!**


	5. Malfoy Manor and a Forest of Snow

**Okay you guys have all right to hate me for the delay but I had a really busy week in which I thought about this story and how I have failed all of you. I also had my birthday and a party (happy birthday to me!) and people to meet and places to go so I'm really sorry for such a long delay. So I jumped over a large time period into the seventh year of the Golden Trio and I know this is a huge twist but I think I know what I'm doing now (I hope..wish me luck) so I here it is and I hope you like it! :D**

*** (almost) **One Year Later** ***

Hermione woke up to strong arms dragging her out of wreckage. There was a fallen chandelier on top of her. Her entire body felt limp and pain caressed every inch of her skin. The words 'mudblood' were carved badly on her arm and scars and bruises surrounded it. She didn't get the time to observe them though because there was chaos all around her.  
They were in Malfoy Manor. Sparks flew from ever side of the room and Hermione felt dizzy. Her vision was blurred but she could sense Ron pulling her away to the side. His arm was around her and she could feel his heart beating violently in the midst of the pandemonium. She felt as though she would fall and crumble any second now. What a waste, she had come so far only to die now? At the cruel hands of Bellatrix Lestrange…  
She glimpsed a blurred Harry fight Draco for the three wands he held. Harry had disarmed Draco with one and taken his (or was it hers actually, since Malfoy had possessed Hermione's wand all this time). However, Bellatrix had thrown a curse at him and in order to avoid it, Harry threw himself to the side and Malfoy's wand(or Hermione's) landed on the ground where Malfoy dived to pick it up quickly.

There was a spark and Hermione saw a body fly up to the ceiling and fall and Draco was pulled out of the way by his mother before Greyback's body crashed down on him. Yes, it was Greyback for sure.  
"Dobby? " Narcissa screamed.  
Yes, Dobby was here. In all the pain she felt, a sense of warmth surged through Hermione when she saw the elf. _Dobby's here_ , she muttered to herself. _Everything will be alright now_.  
She had no idea why she thought this would be true but her half-dead brain felt as though Dobby could save the day. And anyway, she did not mind dying there as long as Dobby was nearby. She felt as though she was in a reverie, time had slowed down.  
 _Dobby was here….  
_ Hermione knew they were going to get out of here. She could feel it in her trembling bones. It was over…for now. In the commotion and banging and shrieking (mostly of Bellatrix), Hermione closed her eyes tightly waiting for it to all end. It had to end. It was ending. Each microsecond was full of dread and her own terrible screams filled up her head until she was sure it was about to explode.  
 _"No! They mustn't get away; The Dark Lord will kill us! Draco hurry, grab them! We can't let them escape! Hurry!"  
_ Why was Lucius Malfoy screaming in her head? This was impossible, shards of glass and dust circled her. Had time really stopped or was she hallucinating? It turned out that Lucius Malfoy wasn't screaming in her head but in real life. Somehow his fit of fear had reached Hermione's ears from across the room. Draco, turned his blood and dust caked face towards them and ran. No one was looking at him. Harry threw a wand at Ron who jumped and caught it. Dobby was stepping closer to them. They were going to escape. _Were they?_ Draco's grey eyes were wild with fear and terror as he pointed his wand at them.  
 _No,_ Hermione thought. _That isn't his wand. It's mine._  
Ron had grabbed Dobby's arm now and she could feel the static charge around her which was a sign that they were going to apparate. Draco yelled something that Hermione's ringing ears couldn't hear. _No, it's my wand. He can't kill us with my wand.  
_ Before Draco had finished his spell, his/her wand flew forwards, taking him stumbling forward with it. Hermione hadn't meant to let go on Ron's arm but she had to grab her wand.  
It was in her reach. Just a few inches away.  
However, it seemed to be moving further or maybe they had already begun apparating, Hermione couldn't tell. Everything blurred around her. Ron's hand reached out for hers but she couldn't grab it, but her fingers encircled the familiar and comforting hard surface of her wand. However, what she didn't realize was that she was now right in front of Dobby. She felt the sudden squeezing sensation of apparating. The world was closing in all around her.  
Just then, she caught sight of an object coming straight at her.  
It was a knife… and Bellatrix was standing right behind it.  
It came directly at her. She couldn't move. Her eyes met Malfoy's in front of her who couldn't let go of his –no her- wand for some reason. Hermione suddenly felt herself recalling her days in the Forest of Dean. It was an odd thing to think of in the middle of all the commotion but it reminded her of her parents whom she had visited it with when she was a child.  
Her parents…  
They would never mourn her death because they didn't know she existed. Maybe it was better that way. The suffocating sensation began and every inch of her painful body felt as though it was on fire. She just wanted it to end. But it didn't, she was floating away from Ron and Harry now. She didn't know why but she was and she couldn't move. There was a crack and she looked down to see her wand break into two. The knife had gone straight through it and hit Dobby.  
Hermione tried to scream but her voice died inside her throat and she once again, entered oblivion.

Everything was completely white when Hermione woke up. Great, first her oblivion was pitch black and now it was all white. Hermione drifted into unconsciousness again.  
When she woke up the next time, there was a hue of a pink and blue above her. The colors merged together so well, she might as well have been looking at a famous painting of the sky. The sky…yes it was the sky she saw above her. A few white wisps of clouds crawled through the colors and eventually, out of Hermione's vision. She felt as though she was lying on something incredibly soft. And cold… Her cheeks felt slightly numb from the cold and when Hermione shifted her gaze towards her sides, she realized that she was lying in a bed of snow. Her body began hurting too. She missed the numbness she had felt as she had observed the sky as pain surged through every vein all over her body. She had to get up. She knew the pain would only get worse if she lay here.

After a few painful minutes of trying to sit up, Hermione had almost given up but then she mustered up very last bit of her dying strength and finally succeeded in sitting up, only to fall on her side once again, due to the immense pain all over her body. Gradually, she managed to stand up shakily while clutching her stomach. She was in a clearing in the middle of a forest covered by a blanket of snow, everywhere except under the pine trees. _Where am I? Where were Ron and Harry? And Dobby…  
_  
She gazed at the pine trees again and felt something stir inside her. This place….it looked familiar. Had she been here before? But how could that be? Why had she been separated by her friends? Hermione felt a strong urge to call out to her friends. In fact, she could call out to anyone. She just wanted someone to be here. But after everything she had been through, she knew that not everyone was going to come help her. In fact, it was more of the opposite.  
 _Where is my wand? It has to be here! Oh my God, didn't it break? Oh God, no I can't be stuck here without one!_  
She looked at the ground where she had lain before, the white snow was smeared with blood that shone brightly against it so even Hermione's aching eyes could see it easily. There was no wand though. Perhaps it had fallen somewhere else? Hermione struggled to keep hope alive with the pain in her legs and the shivers that ran all over her spine. She shakily trudged through the snow searching for her wand, or even its remains, but she found nothing.  
Or at least that's what she thought before she came across a body, laying a foot-deep in snow.  
 _Oh no. This is not happening…  
_ Even before Hermione had reached it, she knew who it was. Her memories of apparating came back to her like a horrible dark river that swallowed all her hopes of surviving in the forest. As she came closer, his dark clothes and pale face proved that it was indeed, Draco Malfoy.

He must've apparated along with her since he had been clutching the wand.  
The wand…she found it. It lay a few inches beside Draco's hand, broken in half. Her hopes to leave died and she felt even more pain and agony. She carefully limped towards it and picked it up. She felt as though a part of her had died inside. Her misery was replaced by numbness.  
She no longer cared about Draco or herself. She just wished her friends were safe. And Dobby…hadn't a knife impaled him? Hermione felt so much worry for the little house elf.  
 _Harry was with him, he'd think of something. He'll be alright,_ Hermione calmed herself. _  
_She had to focus on her situation right now. Suddenly, she remembered her beaded bag. She had safely secured it by placing it inside her warm woolen boot.  
She had just taken it out when Draco moaned and turned to his side. His eyes were still closed but Hermione didn't want to stick around for him to wake up.  
She limped through the forest until she felt she was far enough from Draco. He could have found her if he had walked a mere five minutes into the forest on the directions of her footsteps (that looked more like someone had crawled through snow instead of walking) then he would have found her, but Hermione didn't care anymore. She just wanted to take a long nap and wake up without the pain that felt as though it had become a part of her now.  
She took out her tent and crawled inside. She locked the door so if Draco were to come, without his- her actually- wand, couldn't get in. She forced herself to not fall on the bed immediately and made herself some hot cocoa using one of the muggle packets of coco powder she had stored. Hermione stripped out of her blood-stained clothes and changed into some clean ones after cleaning her wounds and applying a few bandages on them. Looking around at the empty tent made her heart ache for Ron and Harry. She gulped down her hot cocoa and immediately drifted into deep slumber.


	6. The Snow Forest

**I wrote this chapter as fast as I could to make up for the previous delayed chapter. I hope you like this one and please do review! :)  
**

Hermione woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of howling.  
She looked around in the dark tent; it was empty. Of course it was, the howling was coming from outside. Hermione hoped that whatever creature had made that sound couldn't enter her tent. She reproached herself for acting like such a coward. There was another howl - shorter than the first- followed by an agonizing scream.  
 _Malfoy…  
_ Hermione stayed still in her bed for a while before quickly getting up to grab her sweater and put it on. She tiptoed outside her tent and looked around at the white snow that gleamed under the pale moon light. Hermione wasn't planning on saving Malfoy. Oh no…and the last thing she wanted to do was put her life in danger for his. No way.  
Snowflakes fell gently on her shoulders and her hair and she shivered in the cold. She walked closer to the trees, leaving her small clearing behind for the dense dark forest. It was almost impossible to see and it would be a lie to say she didn't almost fall numerous of times, because she did. She kept tripping over the large boulders and fallen branches. _I might as well be waving a flag for any creature to come catch me,_ Hermione thought. She wasn't wrong.  
However, nothing came after her and the forest remained silent. Hermione had reached the clearing where she first woke up when she stopped dead in her tracks.  
Even from behind the dark trees, Hermione could see something move ahead of her. She squinted hard and saw that it was a wolverine. But there wasn't just one. Another one was crouching low behind it and another one a little further off on the right facing it. Hermione's first thought was that there was a wolverine fight taking place since they all were baring their fangs at each other ferociously, but then she looked closer and saw that they were actually hunting. They had cornered their prey and were ready to attack.  
Their prey was a limping and ragged-looking Draco Malfoy.  
He was clutching a thick and short tree branch and pointed it around as if it was a gun. Not that he of course, knew what a gun was, but it was terrifyingly obvious that there was no way that his branch would keep him alive for more than a minute after the wolverines attacked.  
There must have been five of them at least, Hermione noticed. Probably more. She closed her eyes and slowly began moving backwards. She somehow miraculously managed to not trip and she didn't slow stop until she could no longer see the wolverines. She could still hear their snarls and their jaws biting in thin air. She didn't understand how Malfoy had kept them from attacking him for so long. Hermione then made a split second reckless decision and began running towards the left instead of the back. Her body was still sore and pain shot through her legs immediately. She had run only a few meters when she picked a tree at random and began climbing up. The adrenaline rush from the fact that the wolverines had heard her and had paused their snarling to look back at the forest, gave Hermione just enough strength to climb up to a safe height. Once there, she took a deep breath and let out a long howl.  
The wolverines didn't move.  
Or at least Hermione couldn't hear them move. Apart from her and the wolves, the forest was extraordinarily quiet. Hermione howled again; louder this time.  
There was a sound of movement in the snow. She knew it wasn't the wolverines because it was unsteady and slow…as if someone was trying to push themselves through snow. The wolverines growled and sprinted towards the sound. However, after a shuffling of leaves and creaking of branches, the sound of snapping wolverines was the only one that could be heard. No scream and no sound of tearing flesh.  
So Malfoy was safe, Hermione decided. He had probably climbed up a tree.  
The wolverines made attempts at jumping and snapped furiously but nothing happened. Eventually they began running towards Hermione's direction. Her heartbeat increased rapidly but they passed her tree without noticing her and ran into the night. Hermione stayed up in the tree for a couple of minutes to make sure it would be safe to come down. The pain in her legs spread all over her back and she stumbled in the dark for some time before regaining her balance. She began cautiously walking back to her tent but she stopped just as she reached the clearing. Standing in front of her tent, looking dazed and confused, was Malfoy. He quickly turned around to face her and his eyes widened in shock. His blond hair fell in his eyes and his shirt was ripped from his arm. His left leg was bent awkwardly and it appeared to be a shade darker than his pants. Hermione then spotted the small puddle of blood under his leg. Malfoy staggered backwards and regained his balance. His face was paler than ever and easily camouflaged with the snow. He still kept a firm hold on his branch.  
Hermione really didn't want to deal with him. She mustered up all her strength to walk as straight and confidently as she could with the pain in her back, pushed past Malfoy and went into her tent.

After locking the door behind her, she took out all her books on and began searching them for any information that may prove useful. Hermione had almost memorized the books by heart and even as she flipped through the pages, a voice at the back of her head told her it was useless. She would have to find her way back to civilization, obtain a wand somehow and then apparate. But to where? Hermione had no idea where her friends were. Perhaps they were still in danger or perhaps they had been kidnapped again? What about Dobby? Hermione gave up on her distracted reading and decided to take bath instead.  
Somehow, Hermione hadn't been stripped of all luck because there was still hot water in the taps. How that was possible or where the water was coming from or anything to do with the unusual functionality of the tent, were questions Hermione had learned in her fourth year, to not ask. She had spent a long time inquiring about it to Arthur Weasley during the Quidditch World Cup, but he had been too preoccupied to give her a proper or logical answer. After all, it was magic. However, Hermione had vowed to understand everything about it someday.  
After a nice hot bath, Hermione opened up the box of rolls they had been saving to eat last night. It felt strange that so much had happened in such a short while. Slowly and gradually, pale sunlight began seeping through the windows and Hermione knew it was time to go, she had taken enough rest.  
She managed to force the tent into her bag somehow and began walking back to the wolverine clearing.  
Malfoy was nowhere to be seen although his blood was still splattered in front of her tent when she had come out. Hermione felt as though she was moving downhill. Downhill was good, she told herself. She kept walking boldly through the forest as the sun climbed higher into the sky, a few patches of snow had even melted and even small patches of grass could be seen in some rare places. In other shadier areas, the snow was at least a foot deep. As she walked, Hermione started thinking on Ron's deluminator. Hadn't he been appartated back to them after he heard Hermione's voice come out from it? Surely, he could find her now that the tent was free from all enchantments and spells? Hermione desperately hoped the deluminator would work the same way for her.  
After walking for over an hour, Hermione suddenly realized where she was. She had been going over the events that took place in Malfoy Manor over and over in her head and she began thinking about her last few thoughts before she had apparated. She was in the Forest of Dean. She had brought Harry here before as well, after their encounter with Nagini in Godric's Hollow. Somehow she always ended up apparating here to escape a fight.  
After a quick and short meal, Hermione continued her journey though the forest. The sun had climbed up to its highest point and was now slowly creeping down, just as Hermione's legs were beginning to ache from walking for so long. She stopped at a cliff and gazed out at the pink sky and the vast forest land that was spread out before her. Soon the snow would have melted completely. There was no sign of population and Hermione knew she was completely lost in the beautiful-yet-dangerous forest all by herself.

She wasn't going to be alone for long.


	7. Dittany

**Ok I don't have much to say for this chapter but oh…I finally conquered my writer's block! Woohoo! I hope you enjoy this chapter and do review!**

Hermione continued making her way downhill. Somehow, she felt as though her energy was being restored as well as her hope. She had spent so long thinking about how hopeless her situation was, that she no longer felt scared or hopeless. The pain in her legs was slowly fading away and Hermione began enjoying the scenery around her. As sunset approached near, Hermione broke off a fairly long and thin-yet-sturdy, branch from a tree. Using a rock, she began sharpening one point of the branch. Sure, her parents were dentists but her father had taught her a thing or two about survival. Her friends needed her and Hermione was going to get back to them no matter what. The branch end wasn't very sharp after Hermione was done, but it looked like it could do some reasonable amount of harm, although she hoped she wouldn't have to test that in the first place. Using her branch for support, Hermione had almost reached the bottom of the hill, where the ground was more level and straight.  
She was considering stopping for the night or at least taking a break for dinner when she heard movement nearby. It wasn't the sound deer or rabbits or other harmless animals that she had come across during her hike. It sounded like footsteps. Hermione tilted her head to get a better view from in between the trees.  
It was Malfoy. He had bits of grass stuck in his hair and his shirt was torn in different places. He was stumbling about staring at the trees. How had he even gotten this far, she wondered.  
He suddenly turned and met Hermione's confused gaze.  
"You!" he cried manically.  
On another day, Hermione would have felt at least a small hint of fear being stranded alone with an angry Malfoy, but not today. He was harmless now. Wandless and lost in a forest with an injured leg, there was nothing her could do to Hermione.

"What is this place? How do I get back?" he yelled. His voice sounded hoarse and there was a strange, wild look in his eyes. The Malfoys really needed to get out in the open more often, Hermione thought. Somehow, Draco's manic and fear helped Hermione feel stronger and calmer.  
"It's called a forest. It's a large area of land covered in vegetation or trees. Surely you've heard of a forest Malfoy?" she questioned coolly.  
Malfoy sensed her mocking tone and glared at her.  
"As for getting back…I suppose you'll just have to walk to some town or village nearby. You do understand the term 'walking', don't you?" she went on.  
"Why'd you bring me here?" he asked in a low, hoarse voice.  
"I didn't bring you here on purpose Malfoy. I was trying to escape. You're the one who didn't let go of my wand, which would still be functional if your aunt hadn't thrown a knife at it."  
"I couldn't let go of it. I should've known that's what happens if you keep a Mudblood's wand," he spat out.  
Hermione didn't reply to him. She wanted to beat him up so badly but she knew that wasn't going to get her anywhere. It was important that she kept her sanity throughout her journey back. Fighting Malfoy wasn't going to help her stay calm and alert throughout. She had to keep her head clear and alert, so she instead gave him a small smile and began walking ahead.  
"No, wait…" he cried and then there was a sound of a crash. Hermione turned around to see Malfoy lying on the ground with his face buried in the moss and leaves. If he thought Hermione was going to go rushing to his aid, he was dead wrong. Hermione stared at him for a little while and began walking again. The sky had now turned fiery red and ripples of orange ran in between.

Hermione had only walked a little further when she stopped and sighed. She turned around and walked back to Malfoy. Approaching him, she saw that he was breathing rapidly. His face was pale and he looked as though he was unconscious. She glanced at his bloody leg. The parts of his shin that weren't covered by his pants were covered in blood although Hermione could see a small patch of inflamed, purple skin in between. It was obviously infected. It was a wonder how Malfoy had made it this far down the hill, let alone stayed conscious for so long. She twisted her mouth and thought hard. Finally, she dropped down on the ground and took out her beaded bag.  
Great, she was doing exactly what she told herself she wouldn't do.  
She didn't have a wand to summon objects from it so she closed her eyes and focused on it. A part of her warned her against closing her eyes while sitting next to Malfoy, but the medicine jumped into her hand before her fear became reality.  
She unclasped the small bottle of dittany that she had used to treat Ron's arm, and poured two drops on Malfoy's small patch of swollen skin. The swelling reduced immediately and the blood began disappearing. Malfoy's wound remained but his surrounding skin started turning back to its normal pale color. Soon, his wound would also start healing. Hermione felt angry at herself for helping Malfoy. She wanted nothing to do with him but she couldn't let him die, could she? Then again, Malfoy himself would've hurt her if he could and now here she was nursing him back to health. He and his family… the whole lot of them were awful and disgustingly horrible human beings. Now that she had helped Malfoy, she was going to leave him be and get back on her journey and hopefully not see him again.  
Hermione was just about to stand up when Malfoy's eyes shot wide open and he looked at Hermione for a second, then let out a moan of disgust and fell back into unconsciousness.  
Hermione almost smiled. Maybe her helping Malfoy was more painful for him than it was for her. She felt better about it as she walked off.

Night had just fallen when Hermione put up her tent. Her location wasn't ideal (right in the middle of a cluster of tall, dark trees and stony land) but Hermione didn't have a choice. She hardly wanted to be outside during the wolverines' hunting time and who knows what kind of more dangerous creatures inhabited the area. Hermione had fortunately found some berries and after checking them thoroughly to make sure they weren't poisonous (she sent out a thank you to her father again), she had crushed them and eaten them with rolls. She knew her food was also finishing fast and she would have to find a more soon if she wanted to survive more than a day.  
She then cuddled up in her blanket and fell asleep.  
In her dream, Hermione was with Ron and Harry and they had found Ravenclaw's Diadem. Harry was telling Hermione that she had to destroy it and although Hermione kept telling Harry that she didn't know how, he wouldn't listen to her. Standing next to Harry was Ron, who told her to stop being such a coward and destroy it. In her dream, Hermione could feel tears welling up in her eyes and she began screaming that she couldn't do it while Harry shook his head and told her how it was such a mistake to bring her along.  
Hermione woke up sweating and dry tears stained her cheeks. She looked out at the starry night sky and rested her head on her pillow.  
Sometime or another, she fell asleep.


	8. Starvation and Annoying Guys

**Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the story so far! :)**

Whatever hope Hermione was living on, slowly began to fade away when morning arrived. She drowsily opened the box of rolls at breakfast and there were only four left. She stared at the box blankly for a moment and then broke off and ate half a roll. Her food supply was much less than what she had assumed it to be and if he didn't find food fast, she wasn't going to live long enough to find her way back to Harry and Ron. Hermione set off again but this time, with more caution and worry. She scanned her surrounding for wild fruits but she couldn't find anything. Fatigue and hunger caught up to her and she gave in to eating another half-roll even before the evening had begun. Hermione forced herself to keep walking until the sun had fallen close to the horizon and as soon as the sky turned deep orange, Hermione gave up for the day and fell asleep before she could begin craving another roll.  
That proved to be a horrible decision because she woke up at dawn with a horrible pain in her stomach. Hermione tried her best to make her next roll last as long as she could; chewing it slowly and treasuring every bite, and soon, she was left with 2 only when she set off again before the sun had properly risen.

The sun had begun shining brightly now and all traces of snow were now gone. Maybe it was from focusing more on finding food than on where she was going, Hermione began losing track of in which direction she was walking. At first, she knew she was going south…whether there were people there or not didn't matter; she just had to go south, but now she wasn't sure if she was going south after all. She felt dizzy as she walked aimlessly through the forest. Her head felt heavy and no matter how much water she drank (she had collected more from a small stream she had passed), her stomach still growled for food.  
It was pointless trying to walk with the cramps in her stomach so she rested under the shade of a tree for some time and then started walking again. Her legs felt weak and wobbly as she stumbled past the pine trees and even eating another half-roll barely restored her energy. All hopes of returning to Harry and Ron were slowly slipping away from her. She clutched her stomach and forced herself to keep walking.  
There had to be some village, or even a house nearby. She remembered seeing a rest house when she came here with her parents. They had even met a few people while they were camping next a lake. There had to be someone living in the forest. The minutes slowed down as Hermione's hunger increased. A part of her felt angry at herself for feeling so much hunger, that was Ron's job and she was the one who found food for them. She had more important things to do instead of eating, like finding a way to defeat Voldemort. How could she forget the most important mission? _No, Hermione, food isn't important, defeating Voldemort is important.  
_ Hermione kept telling herself this as she wandered on. She had surprisingly covered a fairly large amount of land when she sat down to enjoy a roll.

By the next afternoon, Hermione could barely move. All her rolls were finished and as she sat under a tree breathing slowly in and out to make the pain go away, so was all her hope to find her friends. She could feel herself slipping away from reality and nausea clung to her. Her eyes were almost closed when she heard a loud voice.  
"If you want to die so badly, you could've just let me kill you. It'll probably be less painful than being eaten by wolverines."  
Hermione's eyes shot open and she straightened up. "Actually no, maybe it won't be less painful…" the voice continued.  
Hermione turned to see Malfoy leaning against a tree eating an apple. A nasty scar still remained on his leg but the long-dried blood stains showed that it had healed fairly well. Color had also returned to his face and he wore his usual smug smirk as he looked down at Hermione. She was already regretting healing his leg.  
"Are you following me?" she asked as boldly as she could. She felt like she would faint any second. Malfoy took another loud bite from his apple before responding. Where had he gotten that from anyway? There were no apple trees here, Hermione had searched very thoroughly. And anyway, the climate of this forest was far too cold for apple trees to grow.  
"Well Granger, you seemed to know where you were going so yes, I kept an eye on your movement, (it's not hard since you walk around so blindly) but it appears you know nothing. What a turn of events! The brilliant Hermione Granger knows nothing about where she apparated herself to and is now sitting under a bloody tree waiting to die. I can help with that."  
Hermione observed that Malfoy strangely didn't seem all that angry to discover his guide was just as lost as he was. Maybe it was because he was an evil little imbecile who took pleasure in other people's misery.  
Hermione stood up shakily, taking support from the tree. She did her best to hide her weakness from Malfoy and spoke with authority.  
"I happen to know exactly where I'm going" she lied."I just…came across some minor problems. It's nothing."  
"Oh really?" Malfoy asked stepping closer. He threw his half-eaten apple sideways at the trees, and Hermione couldn't help glancing at it as it flew by. _How could he go around wasting food like that?_  
"You seem pretty hungry mudblood. It's a pity that with all your so-called-knowledge and 'brilliance', you can't even find some food. This is exactly why mudbloods can't be called wizards. They're a disgrace to the wizarding world." He sneered.  
Hermione wanted to slap him but he had moved away and she was afraid she would fall if she let go of the tree. So she glared at him instead and kept reminding herself that Malfoy's gross opinion about muggleborns was the last thing that she should care about.  
After a while, Malfoy looked up from the ground and said:  
"So you really do know where we are, huh? And you know how to reach people?"  
Hermione smirked without any effort.  
"What's the matter Malfoy? Missing mum and dad?" Anger welled up inside her, replacing the hunger pains with an emotion which was pure hatred. She had to make sure she had the upper hand. She couldn't let herself seem weak in front of him and now was her chance to prove that she knew more than him. But did she?  
"Why don't you try using the Dark Mark to call them over? That does the trick, doesn't it? I'm sure your 'Dark Lord' would be thrilled to come rescue you."  
As soon as Hermione had mentioned the Dark Mark, she had regretted it, but for some reason she couldn't stop herself from going on. There was also a change in Draco's expression and his face darkened before he frowned at her.  
"Don't you dare try to tell me what to do! You and your Potter-loving friends don't have any idea what you're getting into!"  
Hermione couldn't tell if Malfoy's words had been a threat or a warning. Either way, she decided to change the subject. She needed food somehow and she needed to get away from him.  
"If you think you can just follow me around, you're wrong Malfoy. I CAN lose you if I wanted to, it's a huge forest and there's no way you can threaten me to show you the way."  
"Listen Granger," he began."If you really know the way, which I highly doubt but you have for some reason, refused to give up walking aimlessly through the forest so that must mean you know at least some idea about where you're going."  
After that he paused and Hermione wondered whether he expected her to again confirm that she did know where she was going but she was under no obligation to do anything for Malfoy. But then he said:  
"So here's the deal, you're obviously going to starve to death soon" (Hermione tried to interrupt at this point but she was cut off by Malfoy) "so here's a deal that I would advise you to accept because if you know anything about surviving, which you don't, you'd know what's good for you...but I won't be surprised if you don't, so what I am saying is that I'll try to spare you some food if you show me the way back to civilization. And then of course disappear and speak about this to no one or you'd be dead before you know it."  
It took Hermione's throbbing brain some time to pick out the bribe from in between all of Malfoy's empty threats and when she had she could only stare at the ground with a puzzled expression on her face. Well he was definitely desperate if he was trying to bribe Hermione for help but she herself was so hungry she couldn't help considering the option. She would rather die than help the enemy but now that dying was actually a very strong possibility, she wasn't so sure. But then again, what if she didn't let Malfoy escape? She could find a way to make sure he didn't cause them trouble later on. It was important that she got back to Harry and Ron, she had to help them and if this was the only way, then so be it.  
Hermione would have preferred to appear to be at least considering her options for a while longer but she gave in to her hunger.  
"Fine," she grumbled.  
"Alright, but if you want food, you need to show some manners." Malfoy smiled.  
Hermione wanted to vomit but she couldn't on an empty stomach. Instead she pressed her teeth together and glared at him. Suddenly a loaf of bread and three apples appeared in Malfoy's hand.  
He tossed them to Hermione and she managed to catch all of them.  
"How did you…?"  
She stared at them in shock and Malfoy remarked "It's healthy," and began walking again. He was barely visible through the trees when Hermione began eating the food hurriedly.  
" Oie! For Merlin's sake, I don't have all day!"  
Hermione sighed and followed him into the woods.


	9. An Uninvited Guest

**Okay I know I'm late with this but I've been feeling really hot, tired and lazy for the past few days so I' didn't get much writing done, sorry! But thank you so much for the reviews and also, Toraach asked whether they are in England and yes, they are! They are in the Forest of Dean where the trio came before too. I know that there may not be wolverines there but there is wildlife so I thought why not add wolverines hehe. I'll explain Draco's ways of survival in this chapter and once again: I'm sorry I'm so late with this. I hope you enjoy!**

When sunset approached, Hermione's legs had become terribly sore. Although she had eaten quite a lot, she still felt exhausted, however, she wasn't about to admit that to Malfoy, who looked like he was casually strolling through a park. Hermione had continuously pestered him about how he had conjured up food, since she had always read in books that it defied magical laws (but she didn't mention that to Malfoy,) but he refused to give her an answer and chose to insult her intelligence instead.  
Apart from that, they walked in silence until the sun had fallen behind the trees. Hermione wasn't sure if she should take out her tent now that Malfoy was here… perhaps he might try to take possession over it? He could easily blackmail her by refusing to give her food unless she didn't give it up to him. But then again, Hermione would be of no use to Malfoy if she was dead. He needed her alive and well-fed so she could show him the way, and Hermione wasn't going to give up the comfort, security and privacy of her tent. As Malfoy looked around, she walked a bit further off and as soon as he was hidden from view, she took out her tent. It was a dreadful struggle to set it up without using magic and Hermione kicked, pushed, pulled and scratched it until it was up.  
"What, in the name of Salzaar Slytherin, are you doing?" Malfoy spoke up from behind her.  
Hermione sighed. She had hoped her would find the tent after she had safely locked herself inside, not when she was sprawled on the ground idiotically. At least the tent was up. She could easily jump inside and lock the door but she decided against it. Malfoy wasn't a threat to her, at least not now. She knew that he couldn't hurt her or push her to the limit where she would abandon him to find his way out of the forest without a guide. So trying to escape his company and lock herself away wasn't going to prove to Malfoy that Hermione didn't care about his stupid insults and empty threats.  
"I am setting up a tent Malfoy. Have you heard of tents? They were a pretty common sight during the Quidditch Tournament and well, I am setting mine up so I can spend the night in mine. And you can go off and sit in a tree, or wherever you stayed during the night time."  
Malfoy ignored her and tossed an apple up in the air.  
"It was horrible staying out in the cold but I survived, obviously. It's quite surprising how warm pine needles can keep you as long as you don't brush against them. And also, I got my food in a bed sheet the first time, so I used that as a blanket at night. Unfortunately, it tore one day as I was getting off the tree so I left it there because it's not even that cold anymore. Pine needles are wonderful insulators actually. Climbing trees was the hardest part actually, when my leg was injured. But as long as I started climbing at sunset, I was up in the tree by nightfall."  
Malfoy smiled as he looked out in the distance, clearly proud of his achievements.  
Hermione rolled her eyes so hard that if she rolled them any further, they would probably get stuck looking at the back of her head.  
"Thank you for sharing that important piece of unwanted information that is of no use to me but if you would like a standing ovation for your brilliant survival tactics, I would suggest you find yourself another tree to climb so you can get home in one piece and tell your fans your over-exaggerated success story."  
Hermione then realized that sarcasm had become her best friend these days.

Malfoy laughed loudly again and smiled. Hermione felt slightly worried, Malfoy never smiled at an offense unless he had a better one planned as revenge.  
"I'm not staying out in the forest anymore, Granger." He smirked. "I am using the tent now. It's my turn I think. And didn't you always go on about the importance of sharing to those air-head First Years? So don't you think it's time you uphold your wonderfully righteous values?"  
Hermione glared at him from the ground.  
"I don't have time to get into an argument with you Malfoy. It's my tent. You can't use it."  
She may as well have been four again and arguing with her parents about how she didn't want to lend her favorite book to her neighbor. Hermione breathed deeply and Malfoy laughed. In a split second, he had effectively dodged her and entered the tent. Hermione pushed herself inside after him but he didn't try to push her out. Instead, he wandered around inside as if he was exploring his new home. He scanned the books that lay on the table and Hermione quickly began collecting them but Malfoy grabbed one before she could reach it.  
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard?!" Malfoy exclaimed holding up the book. Hermione sighed.  
"Why in the world, are you reading this right now? I mean, sure, it's a great read but _seriously_ Granger, great timing. I suppose you muggles are slow when it comes to understanding magic."  
Hermione didn't bother arguing with Malfoy that she wasn't a muggle.  
"Are you done Malfoy? Or would you care for some Pumpkin juice?"  
"I'd rather have butterbeer," he replied without looking up from the empty box of rolls.  
"Hmm," he finally pronounced. "This will do alright I suppose." Hermione opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off.  
"You can leave now Granger…" he began, but he too was interrupted by screeching coming from outside. Hermione couldn't see anything but trees from the peep hole in the door but she turned to Malfoy and gave him a cold glare.  
"Oh for Merlin's sake, are you scared of a few angry wolverines Granger? Well deal with it!" with that he suddenly opened the door and gave her hard push outside.  
"No!" Hermione screeched but she somehow managed to hold onto the door so she didn't fall. She regained her balance and pulled Malfoy's shirt so he stumbled out in the doorway as well. The door slammed shut almost on Hermione's fingers but she let go in the last second. She was about to scream at Malfoy when she realized he was frozen and looking straight ahead. She followed his gaze and in the pale moonlight, she spotted two shining eyes peering out from behind the trees, looking directly at them.  
Without taking her eyes off the creature, Hermione grabbed the door handle and gently turned it. It didn't budge. She turned it again more impatiently but it was stuck. There was a rustling of leaves and branches and she could feel the creature come closer.  
"Open the bloody door Granger." Malfoy hissed, without taking his eyes off the creature.  
"It's not opening. It's stuck," she whispered back.  
Malfoy either thought she was weak or thought she was lying to him because he grabbed the door handle and pushed and turned it furiously. The door only squeaked loudly. The creature's eye slits became more slanted and it approached closer. She still couldn't see its body in the dark but Hermione wasn't keen on seeing it either. It definitely wasn't a wolverine… that was for sure, its eyes were too large and it appeared to be bigger.  
Malfoy was about to whisper something but the creature leapt out from behind the trees at the same time and Hermione threw herself to the side. She saw a black figure behind her as she made a run towards the back of the tent. There was a glimpse of Malfoy as he disappeared behind the trees but she didn't follow him and instead, ran ahead as fast as she could. She sprinted past pine trees and half-jumped, half-stumbled over the large boulders. Twigs and leaves scratched her face but Hermione didn't stop. She could feel something hot and sticky on her cheek but she wiped it off.  
She had either run one whole minute or fifteen, when she tripped over a fallen branch and fell face-forward into the dirt. She groaned and strained her neck and looked behind. There was nothing except tall tree figures behind her. Her heart was still racing and she expected something to leap out of the trees behind her any second but nothing happened. The forest was silent except for the sounds of crickets and owls that somehow helped Hermione calm down. However she still couldn't force herself to get up.  
After a long time, Hermione tentatively stood up. Her leg hurt a lot but Hermione knew it was nothing serious. Using the back of her hand, she wiped her cheek again and the blood on her hand and the slight pain she felt on her cheek told her that it was bleeding. Wiping her hand on her jeans, she slowly began walking back, taking small steps and watching out for any movement. She eventually reached the tent and when she approached the front, she found two large scratch marks on the door and a sleeping Malfoy snoring loudly, sitting against it. Hermione had heard of not-falling asleep in fear, but never of falling asleep in fear. She limped towards the side of the tent and sat down with her back against it. Malfoy's snores could still be very well-heard but they didn't bother Hermione now that she had just escaped being killed. Hermione could feel her head becoming heavier and she wanted to doze off too but it was fairly impossible for that to happen, no? But then again, she no longer cared about the cold because she had run enough for her to feel warm and as long as she was asleep while it happened, Hermione didn't mind being eaten alive. Slowly, she too fell into peaceful slumber.


	10. A Day of Discoveries

**Hey everyone! I actually quite like this chapter and I hope you do too so that it can make up for the delay, hehe. I would also really love some reviews and hearing from you! Finally, I managed to pick up the pace and kind of, well...take this story somewhere instead of mindlessly babbling on. Oh and I don't think I'll be able to write anything for the next week or two since I'm not going to be in the city and it's gonna be a really busy couple of weeks for me. I'm sorry! So once again, enjoy! xx**

Hermione woke up to raindrops falling on her face. She immediately got up and looked around. Walking to the side, she saw that Draco had already woken up and walked off.  
"Malfoy?!" she called out as she rubbed her eyes.  
"Why don't you shout a little louder Granger?"  
Hermione jumped and turned around to a grumpy -looking Malfoy standing behind her. His clothes very dirty and and torn and his blond hair resembled Harry's. Hermione's stomach did a double turn and this time she was sure it wasn't because she hadn't eaten in a long time. She turned to the tent door and began pulling and pushing it furiously.  
"This is why tents aren't supposed to have doors anyway. Why the bloody hell did you get a tent with a door?" Malfoy pestered from behind her.  
Hermione sighed.  
"Next time, we'll buy one from you!" Hermione exclaimed without turning around.  
Malfoy didn't reply but instead walked off. He had obviously tried opening it before her. After a few more tries, Hermione let out an infuriated groan and gave up. She then heard the sound of slow and dragging, footsteps approaching and turned around just in time to dodge Malfoy holding a large branch. It looked more like a small trunk itself. He shoved it against the door and although it creaked loudly, it remained well-intact and fully shut. Malfoy grunted and stepped back several feet. He then ran at the door and pushed the branch into it. Hermione calmly watched as Malfoy fell to the floor screaming curses and grabbed his injured leg. Hermione wondered how he had even survived the attack the previous night. Somehow, looking at Malfoy squirm around gave her an idea. His face was still contorted with pain so Hermione easily snatched away the branch and although it was heavy to lift, she managed to throw it to the side so now she could at least stand in front of the door. She wiped her hands on her jeans and began running her fingers through her hair.  
Malfoy looked up at her, still squinting from the pain.  
"What the- did you catch lice or something?"  
Hermione rolled her eyes at him but she doubted he could see that. She also noted that he sounded more puzzled than rude.  
"Aha!" she exclaimed, pulling out a hair pin. She blew at her hair that had collected in front of her face and bent down to the doorknob. She squeezed the pin inside and began pushing it up and down. She had obviously never done this before. She could use her wand before and when she was young, she never had the need to open any locks. However, once when Hermione was 9 years old, she had made friends with the 12 year old daredevil Maggie Rodd, whose favorite past time was wrecking havoc to her house when her parents were away or opening the locked cupboards that containing biscuits. According to Maggie, she had learned this tick from a 14 year old boy called Dennis. Consequently, Hermione and Maggie's friendship never lasted very long. In fact, it lasted 2 weeks to be exact. But right there, as Hermione struggled with the hair pin, she felt herself strongly respecting Maggie Rodd.  
The doorknob clicked and the door creaked open.  
"Finally," Malfoy muttered and slid past her. The rain that had previously been an almost non-existent drizzle, slowly began falling harder and faster. Hermione turned back to the door and went inside behind Malfoy.  
She had just shut the door when Malfoy began complaining loudly from the end of the room.  
"I need clothes. I can't believe I'm asking this but where are Potter's clothes? Ugh, does Weasley always wear such disgusting rags?"  
Malfoy was now throwing clothes all over the place as he rummaged through Harry and Ron's clothes.  
Hermione could feel her blood boiling in anger but she controlled herself and calmly walked up to Malfoy.  
"You can't wear Harry's clothes. This is mad, leave their stuff alone"  
Malfoy completely ignored her as he grabbed one of Harry's plaid shirts and a pair of jeans and a jacket.  
"This will have to do, I suppose. This _is_ mad actually. But then again, I rather not look like one of the Weasleys , all dressed in rags. I wouldn't be able to live with myself then." He looked at Hermione and smirked.  
She glared back at him and mumbled "I don't understand how you live with yourself anyway."Malfoy didn't seem to have heard her as her walked to the kitchen.  
"Now go search for fruits or whatever, I need to change."  
Hermione stared at him furiously.  
"Malfoy, this is my tent. And it's raining outside. You go change outside!"  
"Fine, stay here then." He smiled.  
Hermione angrily turned and left the tent. She still had her pin so just in case Malfoy tried to lock her out, she knew she could enter again. Hermione only walked a little further into the woods so that she could still keep an eye on the tent (in case it would magically disappear). The rain was falling hard now and after a minute of walking, Hermione had to take shelter under a tree. She wasn't sure how long she stood there, thinking of her friends and her parents. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes but she quickly blinked them away. It felt awful being stuck so far away from them. She wished she could somehow send them a message and see whether they were okay. And of course, tell them not to worry about her. She felt so useless being lost in the middle of the forest while Harry was trying to destroy horcruxes and eventually kill Voldemort.  
Hermione realized that she must've been standing there for around 20 minutes so she ran back to the tent and was a little surprised to find the door unlocked. She went inside to find Malfoy looking much cleaner and happier, he'd obviously washed up. However, seeing him in Harry's clothes almost made her cry out in agony. Hermione took a deep breath and walked up to the kitchen table. Malfoy was conjuring up food from thin air and setting it around. Strips of beef were neatly aligned next to a plate of mashed potatoes and a sliced loaf of brown bread. Next to the bread, there was a large cabbage and a large bottle of chocolate milk. Hermione stared at the food in shock as Malfoy made himself a very tidy-looking sandwich. He then poured himself a glass of chocolate milk and sat down to enjoy his meal. He almost looked cheerful to her. There was a low rumble of thunder and Hermione knew she wasn't going to be able to escape from Malfoy's company for a while now.  
"Go ahead, unless you'd rather starve, " Malfoy mumbled with his mouth full.  
Hermione sat down and began making herself a sandwich as well. It seemed extremely odd for her to be sitting and eating next to Malfoy in the dark, stormy weather as if they were old friends on a camping trip. The chocolate milk was absolutely delicious, and so was the rest of the meal. The downpour was apparently short-lived because now only a slight drizzle could be heard from outside. Hermione wanted to snuggle up in her bunk bed and fall asleep again but that was obviously out of the question.  
"How far is it now?" Malfoy asked.  
He had been asking her about their location very often now and Hermione always gave him an oblique reply. But she made up for it by walking with immense confidence so he would think she knew exactly where she was going. If Malfoy felt suspicious, he didn't show it.  
"You can't expect me to remember every little detail of the forest to know our exact location and its distance…but I don't think we're very far. We'll be there soon."  
"Be where?" Malfoy asked calmly.  
Hermione looked up at him and met his cold grey eyes. His face was expressionless so Hermione couldn't tell what he was thinking as he continued eating his sandwich. She could still feel her pulse rate increase.  
She gave him her best exasperated stare that she had used so often on Ron and occasionally on Harry too.  
"With people of course. The forest guides and the camping sites and all," Hermione answered coolly.  
Malfoy didn't reply but instead he wiped his crumby hands on his –no, Harry's- jeans and went outside where the rain had almost completely stopped.  
Hermione took out her _The Monster Book of Monsters_ and began searching for anything about darkly-colored, large creatures like the one she had encountered last night. However, since she had barely seen it, she didn't know how to even recognize it in the book. What if it was a bear or another animal instead of a monster? Hermione poured over every page without any confidence in finding anything useful.  
She had crossed to the section on 2 legged monsters when she heard a shout.  
It was Malfoy of course. He kept on shouting like a maniac and Hermione closed her book and went outside. He was nowhere in sight but his shouts had become more coherent and loud. A part of her considered leaving him to fend for himself but then she realized he wasn't shouting from terror.  
He was shouting in happiness. The smell of wet pine needles and mud filled the air and as she walked a bit further into the woods and it became apparent that his voice was coming from high up in the tree. After straining her neck for some time, Hermione spotted Malfoy in between the branches of the highest tree in the area. He had stopped shouting but he still wore a large grin as he gazed at the sky. Or maybe he wasn't gazing at the sky.  
Hermione wondered if this was some sort of a trick for him to lure her into the tree and somehow escape with the tent but then that seemed a little stupid to her. Drops of water fell from the leaves onto her face.  
"Malfoy what the hell are you doing?!" she shouted up at him.  
Malfoy looked down at her but then looked back up and shouted back: "There's a cottage, there's a cottage a day's walk from here. You didn't know about that, did you? So much for your brilliant sense of direction!"  
Hermione stared blankly up at him. So there was someone living here, in the woods. She had hoped to reach a proper village or a community of some kind but the fact that they had even found a living person was already a miracle.  
"I'm coming up!" Hermione shouted back. Malfoy ignored her.  
Hermione couldn't understand how he could so easily climb up such humongous trees and so high up too. Hermione struggled and groaned at every stop and eventually she managed to reach half of the tree's height. Her hands were muddy and scratched from holding the branches but she could see that she was quite high up and if she fell, she probably wouldn't survive the fall. Most of the trees around her had their canopies already starting and here she was only half way up. She began climbing again and stopped a few branches below Malfoy. From there, she could see the roof of a brown cottage snuggled in between the forest far up ahead. Hermione couldn't be sure, but she thought she could also see traces of smoke above the small chimney. Malfoy was eating another apple (obviously, not from the tree) and looking in the direction of the sun that was coming out from behind the dark grey clouds. A pale pink hue washed over the sky as the clouds moved further and further away. Far off in the sky, Hermione also spotted a rainbow.  
"Shouldn't we get moving if we want to reach the cottage by sunset?" Hermione broke the silence.  
Malfoy didn't look very happy being pulled out of his reverie and his face turned from peaceful to cold in a split second.  
"Then get moving already," he answered back without looking at her.  
After a lot of effort and time, a bruised, scratched and exhausted Hermione finally touched the wet ground. She went back to wrap up the tent and by the time she had reached the tree again, Malfoy was gone. Hermione sighed and continued walking in the direction of the forest. When afternoon arrived, Hermione found Malfoy sitting next to a tree eating bread rolls and fish. He handed a few bread rolls to her and they ate in silence.  
"Fish and bread rolls, great combination," she spoke up suddenly. Hermione expected Malfoy to ignore her hint as usual but instead he looked down at his food and replied "Kreacher sends them"  
Hermione almost spat out her food.  
"Kreacher?!"  
"Yes Granger, Kreacher… the house elf."  
"How do you…since when does he work for you? How can he send you things? How do you even know about him?" Hermione implored.  
"My God, Granger, get a grip. I've known Kreacher since the fifth year when he ratted all of you out to Aunt Bella and my mother. However, I was admittedly reckless and behaving foolishly when I made that deal with him just before he left the Manor."  
"What deal?" Hermione could feel her heart beat rise. If this had anything to do with Sirius Black's death, Hermione wasn't sure what she would do.  
"I was home for Christmas holidays when Kreacher arrived and I wasn't that interested in why he came but ever since Umbridge had arrived at Hogwarts, the quality of food really went down in my opinion. So in a hurry I cornered him right before he left and I had begun with using the tactic of fear to get him to agree but then he began praising my family, especially my mother, and looked like he was about to faint from happiness, that I really didn't need to scare or torture him."  
"Into doing what?" Hermione asked. She wasn't sure where this was going anymore.  
Malfoy sighed.  
"Into sending me food."  
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Malfoy interrupted her. "House elves can disapparate and apparate anywhere they want, right? So they can do the same with food too. In Hogwarts, that's how they send the food to the tables. So I made a deal with Kreacher that he would send me food whenever I want. I just had to give him something of mine to keep. Like I gave him a torn towel-" Malfoy chuckled at himself here"-and somehow with it, they know when you want food and can send you some. Unfortunately, I can't send him a message or anything."  
Hermione stared at Malfoy, dumbfounded. Malfoy finished his food and got up. Hermione sat there, appalled for a while but then she shook her head and got up.  
She finally opened her mouth to say something but Malfoy stopped her.  
"Don't. Just don't, Granger," he ordered. Hermione bit her lip but stayed quiet for the rest of their walk.

Malfoy walked ahead, and they both walked on, absorbed in their own thoughts as the sun stooped lower into the sky. Hermione's mind was stuck on Voldemort and her friends and Hogwarts and Kreacher that she almost missed it. To her left, she thought she saw a clearing and without telling Malfoy who was disappearing from view, she cautiously walked towards it. She had walked only a few minutes when she reached the clearing and in front of her stood the same brown cottage whose roof she had seen earlier in the morning. Hermione almost squealed in delight. The windows were dark and she couldn't tell if the cottage was inhabited. She turned around to shout at Malfoy but then she stopped.  
All afternoon she had thought of Voldemort, the horcruxes, her friends, Sirius Black and Hogwarts (and occasionally Kreacher) that she felt uneasy about calling Draco. He was the enemy. Alright fine, maybe not the most problematic or evil one, but he belonged to the family of enemies. The Malfoys were loyal to Voldemort and there was no doubt about it. But surely, after some time, he would also find the cottage. At the most, it would take him an hour? What if the cottage was inhabited and if she left him now, how would she get food? Yes, she would have all the opportunity she wanted to leave Malfoy later. It wasn't as if he was going to want to stick with her after they found a way to get back to Hogwarts or London or wherever.  
"Malfoy!" Hermione screamed at the woods. "Malfoy, over here!"  
It was some time before he appeared behind her and his eyes travelled to the cottage and he looked at it astonished.  
They both stared at it in silence until they heard footsteps approaching inside and the door creaked open.


	11. Black Bear

**Hey guys! I know it's been sooo long and I feel REALLY bad for leaving you guys hanging like I did, I just had no idea I'd be this busy and so much happened in the past few weeks that I never got a chance to write. I don't think I've EVER been this busy before but now everything's slowed down a bit so I will hopefully publish the next chapter soon. Again, I'm soo sorry! Please forgive me…here's a long action-packed chapter as an apology note. I hope you enjoy!**

The cabin door creaked open. Hermione took a deep breath, an old man with a grizzly grey beard, holding a wooden cane, came out. His clothes were worn out and faded. His head contained a few grey hairs but overall bald. A few black streaks could be seen in his beard. His eyes widened as he saw them standing in front of his cabin.  
"Who the 'ell are you two?" His voice was shaky and dry as if he hadn't spoken in a very long time. His shakily pointed a finger at them as if he wanted them to know that he was talking about them. He swayed slightly to the side in shock.  
Malfoy smirked as if he was going to begin threatening the old man so Hermione cut him off just as he opened his mouth.  
"Um, uh…" Hermione began. "We're lost, so now we're eh, trying to get back to London, actually, any town. We, um, go separated from our, um, families. We were camping and uh, we should've paid more attention to our parents of course because no we have no idea where we are!"  
Hermione let out a nervous laugh here as Malfoy stared at her incredulously. Maybe she had given too much false information. Or maybe not enough, either way, the man didn't seem to be in any less or more of a shock as he was before. He looked at Hermione and then suddenly moved to the side and if awoken from a daze, to clear the doorway that led to his dark cabin.  
"Right, 'm come on in then, Not a lotta folks walk around here. Can't say when I last saw someone. Maybe two years ago, na.. Macy was long gone by then..." his voice slowly fell to only a whisper and Hermione didn't think it right to ask him anything yet.  
"Come on in then!" he exclaimed looking them both. She met Malfoy's baffled look and slowly walked up the frail-looking wooden steps of the cabin, and past the man and into his cabin.

The musky and damp smell of the cabin hit Hermione first. It was so strong that she almost tripped over. Next, she realized how dark the cabin was. There were windows to the side of the door but the interior was still dark and only the outline of chairs and tables could be seen. Large planks of wood lay on numerous tables and every object looked ancient. Hermione glimpsed a bit of the kitchen too. The dusty wooden floor creaked and every step Hermione took inside, the musky smell got stronger and stronger. It was a mixture of the smell of dirt, dust, dampness and what Hermione assumed to be rotting food. She realized she was blindly stepping forward towards the wall without bothering to check behind for Malfoy and the man. When she turned around, she saw only Malfoy standing there grumpily with the pale forest light falling from the doorway and onto his back.  
"This place is a bloody hell hole," he muttered.  
"Shhsh, don't say that!" Hermione squeaked looking all around. "Wait, where did he go?" Apart from her and Malfoy, the room was empty.  
"Dunno, don't care. We should threaten him to give up any valuable information he has and then tie him up and take his things."  
"Malfoy, no!" Hermione exclaimed while frantically looking around to make sure the man wasn't nearby. Where had he gone so suddenly? _  
_"Yeah, he doesn't anything worth stealing. This place is disgusting," he grumbled as his fingers pulled at a small, dusty glass jar with an intricate design painted on it, making it tip over and crash into pieces on the ground. Hermione gasped and immediately crouched down to pick up the pieces near Malfoy's feet. Malfoy merely sighed and went on touching objects as she struggled to find the glass pieces. She suddenly felt as though she was being watched and she looked up to see a dark figure on the steps of the cabin. It wasn't a figure of a man, but instead, of a bear.  
A gigantic black bear.  
Hermione could tell from the crimson eyes that it was the same creature she had encountered in the woods, the previous night. The bear was absolutely humongous. Hermione didn't know bears could be this large. Suddenly, she remembered something Professor McGonagall had told the class once: an animagus may be different than a normal animal of the same kind. It may be larger, or smaller, or another one of its physical appearances may not be the same. It wasn't necessary for all cases, in fact, it was very rare, but it was possible. The crimson eyes and the abnormally large body of the bear told Hermione that that was the case this time. That must mean that the old man…  
This thought had barely rushed into Hermione's head along with all the rest when the bear began running towards the doorway on all fours. A scream hadn't yet escaped her lips when Malfoy turned around just in time to see the bear jump up towards him. On the last second, Malfoy threw himself to the side and fell over the table, knocking out several jars and boxes and fell to the floor. Hermione was still crouching on the ground and with Malfoy out of the way, the bear landed directly on top of her. She fell back on the floor and her hands were pinned under the bear's claws and its head loomed horrifyingly above hers as she struggled to get up. Its mouth hung open and it barred its teeth threateningly a few inches above her face so she could see the yellow patches on the teeth and the bits of meat stuck in between them from its last kill. They actually bore quite a bit of resemblance to the old man's teeth. Then again, that was because it _was_ the old man on top of her right now.  
There was the sound of shuffling behind the bear and she glimpsed something white move behind the bear and out the door. She let out a high-pitched scream as the bear opened its mouth again and this time the stench of blood and meat almost made her vomit. She would have actually vomited if there wasn't a bear on top of her at the moment.  
"Draco!" she almost whimpered, her face was pressed to the floor to get as far away from the bear's mouth as she could as she craned her neck to spot any movement behind them or near the door. There was nothing. He had left her for dead. Hermione thought she would feel fear in her last seconds of life when she was about to be eaten by a bear- no, an old man- but all she felt was anger. Anger that she was stuck in a forest with a bear on top of her while her friends were trying to save not only the wizarding world but also the muggle world and her parents were in Australia with no memory of her and she had helped an enemy who had abandoned her with the bear and was now probably running for his life. The very least consolation she had was that he would probably never find his way out of the woods and his life would eventually end the same way as hers.  
There was a loud roar and just when the bear was about to bite Hermione's face right off, then there was a sound of a crash and pieces of glass flew from what-appeared-to-be the creature's back. Hermione closed her eyes to avoid the shattered pieces of glass from hitting her but she felt a sudden and extreme pain in her cheek. The bear, in one swift movement, turned around, roared and lashed out his claw. There was a terrible and loud scream and the sound of a body falling down the steps of the cabin.  
Hermione wasted no time in getting up and, with the bear blocking the doorway and the few milliseconds of distraction to spare, Hermione sprinted to the window and jumping over a chair, threw herself out of it. It was not luck that the window was open, but as Hermione would later inform her friends: only fate trying to make up for doing a terrible job at balancing out her problematic life.  
In some super spy move, Hermione had recovered from being sprawled on the ground and was up in a matter of two seconds and, moving towards the front side of the cabin, she saw Malfoy run towards her side of the woods with the bear closely following. Hermione would have wasted no time in doing the same but it was obvious that the bear was too close. There was no way they were going to lose it in broad daylight and it was already at Malfoy's heels. Hermione knew her adrenaline rush wasn't going to last forever when it came to running. In a split second she had turned back towards the window and without thinking, she pulled at it. In another and even more stranger stroke of "luck", the window actually came off entirely with the glass intact and Hermione turned around to see Malfoy fall to the ground just in front of a tree and the bear, wasting no time in gripping his meal this time, brought his mouth dangerously close to his neck.  
Time didn't stop for Hermione but it did slow down as she ran up to it and threw the window at its back. Glass shattered all around but for a moment, Hermione wasn't sure if it had any effect on the bear. Then it slowly turned around and met Hermione's startled gaze. In the silence, she could hear her heart beat violently against her chest. The slowly, the bear began falling and Malfoy swiftly rolled to the side just before it fell on the ground with a large " _thump".  
_ There was silence for some time as the birds chirped cheerfully in the sky. Slowly, Malfoy stood up and walked towards Hermione robotically and they both stood there staring at the bear, transfixed. Apart from having dirt on his face and his clothes, Malfoy looked shaken up, but unhurt on a whole.  
"We have to go," Hermione said finally. Her voice came out hoarsely. "It -I mean- he, isn't dead…only injured for some time," she added quietly.  
Without looking at Malfoy, she turned around and began walking back towards that side of the forest from where they came from. All she wanted to do was get as far away from the cabin and the bear, as she could. She wanted to forget the entire incident and just go to sleep…for a really long time. She had just left the clearing with a head full of jumbled thoughts when she realized that Malfoy wasn't following behind. When she turned around, she saw him standing in front of the cabin staring at the ground with his eyes wide open. Hermione walked back towards him and as she came closer, she saw that he wasn't staring at the ground, he was staring at his hand, and his hand was full of blood. It seemed very strange that she hadn't seen that before but as she came closer, she saw something that took her mind off that in no time.  
Two of Malfoy's fingers were gone.  
She even stood next to him to make sure they weren't bent inside at an awkward angle but they weren't there at all. Malfoy just stood there looking at his hand as his face grew paler and paler. Hermione wanted to retch but she knew that now was not the time. Malfoy had lost two fingers. Malfoy. Fingers. The second he came out of his shock, he would go crazy. Screaming, thrashing, who knew what he would do? He had created chaos over that one time when Buckbeak had attacked him and it was a minor injury at that time. Her head was spinning and she felt she would fall down immediately. She took a deep breath and began speaking in her best calm voice.  
"Malfoy, alright, I need you to walk directly into the forest alright? I don't care where you go, just go into the forest and keep walking."  
There was no way Malfoy would follow such a lame order but he merely nodded and began walking mindlessly into the forest. That wasn't a good sign for his behavior but Hermione made use of the time she had. She walked up the steps of the cabin and began looking around. Finally, she found two fingers lying on the ground a bit far off. Taking a rag from the cabin, she quickly picked them up and ran into the forest. She stole one look at the bear and it still lay on the ground unconscious. It didn't take her long to find Malfoy because he hadn't gotten very far and was leaning next to a tree, still staring at his bloody hand. Hermione tore a long piece of cloth from her sleeve and shoved it into his uninjured hand.  
"Tie it up. Now! Tie it up now!"  
Malfoy began doing as he was told but he had barely wrapped the cloth around it once when he screamed in pain. Hermione opened up the tent in a few quick motions and pushed him inside. Malfoy was clutching his hand in pain but he still followed orders. She went to the sink and washed of the dirt from her hands as her sat down next to the counter. Hermione then rummaged through her belongings until she found a small bag containing sewing needles and threads. She wasn't sure before why she had packed it but now she was glad she had. Malfoy had begun shouting unintelligible words and phrases. In between them, Hermione could make out a few swear words too. By the time she got back to the table, Malfoy was letting out streams of curses and screams.  
"THEY'RE BLOODY GONE! MY FRICKIN' FINGERS, WHAT THE HELL AGHH, WHAT-THIS RKHFKHELGEOEOUL-"  
"Malfoy," Hermione replied firmly and loudly. "They're not gone. I have them, just calm down."  
Malfoy stared at her shockingly and then at his fingers that she took out of the rag and placed on the table.  
"Now," she spoke. She sounded way calmer than how she actually felt."I'm going to sew them back on, but it will hurt. So you have to bear the pain and sit still."  
"SEW THEM? WHAT THE HELL? HOW DO YOU SEW FINGERS? ARE YOU INSANE? SEWING? MUGGLE SEWING? WHAT THE- I NEED A WAND! I NEED TO GO TO ST. MUNGOS RIGHT NOW! I NEED A HOSPITAL, HOW DO YOU SEW FINGERS-"  
"LIKE THIS!" Hermione bellowed. "I'll show you. Just stay calm or something bad will happen."  
At this, Malfoy began shouting again until Hermione shouted back:  
"Just…tell Kreacher to send you some food or something. Put that in your mouth and shut up for a few minutes so I can concentrate."  
Malfoy was about to begin shouting again but then he opened his mouth and no words came out. Maybe he had lost too much energy to keep shouting, Hermione thought. But then he painfully reached down and took out a bottle from inside his shoe. Hermione stared, dumbfounded. It was a tiny vial full of clear liquid.  
"Kreacher sent me vodka once. I don't know why he would but he knows my father likes it so I guess he thought I'd want some too"  
Malfoy's voice was a hoarse whisper now as he stared at the bottle, lost in thought.  
Hermione was speechless but she shook her head and took out the needle and thread.  
"I don't have much, or any in fact, experience with this but I can try. Now show me your hand."  
Malfoy had turned a sickly pale yellow color but he reluctantly placed his bloody hand on the table.  
"It's numb now, kind of," he muttered. He took one gulp from the vial and Hermione shakily began sewing his fingers to his hand. Malfoy placed his head on the table and shuddered every now and then but she managed to finish without any major trouble. He must still feel that time, she wanted to start running blindly into the forest and never return. Or just lie on the bed and go to sleep for eternity, or even vomit, but she couldn't. There was blood everywhere and if he lost any more, he would be dead and she won't have a source of food. Would Kreacher still send food if Malfoy was dead? Would he even find out? Would Hermione have to take his body around with her everywhere? A wave of guilt passed through her and she focused her mind on sewing his fingers on. She thought she heard him sniff or a sob but with his head bent low, she couldn't be sure.  
Finally, she was done, Malfoy kept his head on the table, it would be best to leave him alone for some time.  
Hermione didn't feel much like clearing up the blood yet so she washed her hands and left the tent. She walked for around 20 minutes when she came towards a small gorge. Looking ahead, what she saw there made her gasp. She stood there frozen for a minute, taking it in and then grinned broadly for the first time in a long time.


	12. Deluminator

**Hey guys! I hope you are all doing great. So this is again, a little delayed but sad news is that my school has started and I really don't get a lot free time to write now. I'll keep trying to write and upload chapters as fast as I can but just try to understand the horror I face that is school. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one because I enjoyed writing it!There will be a delay in chapters from now on so don't kill me please! :)**

After repeating herself over and over again, Malfoy finally recovered from his shock and frantically ran out of the tent. Seeing it with his own eyes certainly raised his spirits and he yelled loudly in joy. Hermione couldn't help smiling beaming widely herself. They (mostly Hermione as Malfoy gave her excited orders to move faster- m _y fingers were cut off Granger!_ \- and Hermione didn't really want to push her luck with his fickle mood) packed up the tent in a matter of a couple of minutes and were running towards their first sight of (proper) society in a long time. Hermione had spotted a number of cabins scattered in the woods, about a day from their location. The two barely remembered the animagus they had encountered hardly half an hour ago as they recklessly and anxiously ran through the trees, not worried about the noise they were making. One thought did cross Hermione's racing brain, and that was that Malfoy was running pretty fast and was very energetic, for someone who had lost (and regained) two fingers. But that was good, right? They had found a community of people… that was even better. They were going to get out alive, and Hermione had to find a way to escape from Malfoy's company and get back to Harry and Ron.  
By the time the sun had fallen low in the orange-red sky, it dawned on them both that they couldn't reach the community until the next day. Exhausted and feeling let down, they both stopped and Hermione tiredly set up the tent. They had been racing, jogging and stumbling through the woods for hours with their conversations minimized to the least effortless ones which consisted of occasional grunts, points and nods (those were to tell the other person they were sure they both were going in the right direction). Hungry and tired, they had a silent dinner consisting of fried chicken and chips that Kreacher sent Malfoy (Hermione still had so many questions regarding that but she didn't have the energy to do that yet). After a quick shower, Hermione collapsed on the bunk bed and Malfoy snored noisily on the spare bed across the room. She fell asleep immediately.  
The sun hadn't fully risen when Malfoy and Hermione took off jogging through woods again. This time, they decided to preserve their energy more wisely and took a brief break after every hour and a half. By midday, panting and clutching their sides, they finally came across a lonely cabin. Experience had taught Hermione a good lesson and she urged and snapped at Malfoy until he finally walked away from the cabin angrily. She knew very well that she was not going to go wandering into another lonesome cabin, they had to go to the community. After a few minutes, the trees lessened and they came to a large clearing with a two-storey cottage that stood in the middle. They steered past it and came across many smaller houses lined up along with a few jeeps parked to the side and a number of people walking to and fro. Hermione noticed that many of the people wore a green and black jacket with a pine tree logo on the back. No one noticed the two strange looking teenagers standing on the side, bewildered at the sight of actual, normal people.  
At last, a blonde woman in her mid-thirties turned around and caught sight of them.  
"Hey!"A few other people turned around as well. "What you are you two doing there? Are you lost?"  
Hermione had to swallow a few times before she could get her voice to work…along with her brain.  
"Uh, um, yes. Please, we need to get back to London. Yes, that's very important. Please, we have to get there immediately." Malfoy didn't say anything at all, that was probably for the best but he raised his arm that was attached to his patched-up fingers and held it to his chest and grimaced. Hermione noticed that The Dark Mark was now showing on his arm and she discreetly and quickly nodded at it and he dropped his arm to his side, protectively again.  
The woman stared at both of them very inquisitively and when Hermione met her dark grey eyes, she felt as though the woman was looking directly into her soul. When other people arrived, the woman looked away. Questions were thrown at them and Hermione felt dizzy and lightheaded at such a sudden encounter of so many voices and so many people. She could hardly make out their words but then the woman spoke loudly and everyone went quiet.  
"Give them some air!" at this, everyone backed off considerably. "It's alright, I'll take them. John, go make some calls to the committee and tell them we found two teenagers in the forest, or more correctly…two teenagers found us. I'll take them to the dining area and Ronnie: tell Jace to make his best fish sandwiches and some hot chocolate. I'll check them for any injuries. If you have anything to tell me, call me on my cell because I don't want anyone interrupting me. God knows what they've been through, the last thing they need is a bunch of people on their case."  
Hermione listened quietly as the woman ushered them towards a cabin. Malfoy twitched uncomfortably at her touch but he gritted his teeth and remained quiet. Once inside, she seated them at the nearest table and began closing the curtains. Hermione looked around and saw that they were inside a large room with three round tables and chairs arranged all around them. At the very end of the room was a counter and she could glimpse a kitchen behind it. Hermione felt her mind dreadfully wandering back to the last time she was inside a house with a stranger.  
"Well, aren't you a long way from home?" she asked walking towards them.  
Her arms were crossed against her chest and she spoke with calmness and authority. Hermione nodded without meeting her strong gaze. After all, it was natural for someone to act uncomfortable after being lost in the forest.  
"Four fish sandwiches Greta?" a man's shout came from far inside the kitchen.  
"Yeah, thanks Jace!" she shouted back.  
She sat down on their table and spoke again in a lower voice:  
"I mean, especially for two young wizards at a critical time like this…"  
Hermione looked up and stared at Greta and then at Malfoy who looked as startled as her. She began speaking again before they could open their mouths.  
"You are teenagers right? Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts? What, did you two fall in love and decide to escape into the forest? In which case, how did you do that because last I heard, Hogwarts was impossible to penetrate with all those traps that Severus Snape put on everywhere. God, I hate that man."  
Hermione wasn't sure what to say first, but she began talking before Malfoy did.  
"No, no, no. We didn't escape from Hogwarts. It's very complicated but I have to get back to my friends, they may be in a lot of danger and this is really important because…they don't know if I'm alive and time's running out and please, if you can just get us to Diagon Alley or even London, we'll make our way from there and –"  
Here she was cut off by Greta.  
"I'm not taking any Death Eaters with me, even the child ones" she said calmly.  
"No! No, I'm not a Death Eater! It's a really long story, we accidentally apparated here together, look I can prove it!" and with that Hermione rolled up her sleeve and showed Greta the ' _mudblood'_ that was carved into her arm. They both then looked at Malfoy who shot up and in one swift movement, Greta's arm was outstretched towards Malfoy and a wand had appeared in her hand.  
"One day, my father _will_ find me and when he does, he will kill you for leaving me here in this land full of..." Malfoy hesitated a moment before spitting out "dirty muggles"  
Greta's hand twitched and she pursed her lips.  
"Well maybe I'll make sure your father doesn't find you-"  
All of a sudden, there was a blue burst of light above the table and everyone jumped backwards. Hermione thought she heard a voice coming from inside the light and slowly, the voice became louder and clearer.  
"…shush…go back to sleep Harry….it's okay. Hello? Is anyone there?"  
"RON!" Hermione screamed. Her heart leapt violently but Ron didn't hear her.  
"I've lost count of how many times I've tried this but….Hermione? Hermione can you hear me? I've tried using my deluminator countless times to talk to you the same way I heard your voice when I-uh, left. I don't know if you received any of those or if you'll get this or if I'm bloody mad talking to a stupid light but if by some miracle you get this…well Harry and I destroyed the horcrux, it was really hard without you of course but we managed somehow…breaking into Gringotts-it's a long story. But the last Horcrux is at Hogwarts: we're going there tomorrow; Harry had a dream half an hour ago…I can't explain everything…just be safe Hermione," and with that, Ron's voice and the blue light suddenly disappeared.  
There was a long silence in which Hermione's heart continued to beat rapidly. Greta stared at her transfixed.  
"Go," she suddenly spoke up. Her voice was hoarse."You are a friend of the boy who lived….Harry Potter. I'll take you to Diagon Alley, I'm sorry but I can't apparate into Hogsmeade, let alone Hogwarts itself. Call me a coward and I won't blame you for you, child, have probably done more for us than I ever shall," Greta's voice trembled.  
Hermione gave her a genuine smile of gratitude.  
"If you take me to Diagon Alley, that'll be far enough. I'll take a wand from Ollivander's shop and apparate to Hogwarts myself… I think it'll be better that way. Thank you though"  
"Don't thank me"  
"Hey what about me?" Malfoy suddenly complained.  
"Fine, you can come along. You are a harmless coward anyway," Greta replied after nodding at Hermione. Malfoy gritted his teeth and glared at them, but said nothing.  
"Don't you dare try anything Malfoy," Hermione added coolly.  
Hermione would lose him in Diagon Alley, she didn't care what happened to him or what he would do later. She could take care of herself very well and Greta kept a firm grip on her wand, just in case something was to happen. Hermione would find a wand and leave as fast as she could. Her friends needed her. Ron's voice still echoed in her ears and Hermione felt hope surge through her veins. _Her friends were alright._ She felt as though she was coming to the end of something. A chapter maybe, or even a book. Goosebumps rushed down her spine but Hermione didn't mind it.  
Greta held Hermione's hand and sternly took hold of Malfoy's (who looked on the verge of vomiting) and Hermione felt a sharp pushing sensation as if someone was trying to compress her inside a 2-inch wide jar and suddenly, it was all gone. They had apparated.  
When Hermione opened her eyes, she saw darkness all around her. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to it and she saw grey walls around her. They were in a small street and black clouds loomed over them in the sky. The paint was peeling off the buildings and pieces of paint, paper fliers and dust flew all around them in the chilly air. Doors and windows stood either locked or broken.  
From the torn sign above her that advertized spell-checking quills, Hermione began to recognize the Diagon Alley she had visited first, 6 years ago with her parents.


	13. Diagon Alley

_Hey guys! So school's taking over all my time as expected *sigh* but I managed to write up this short chapter today before the workload tries to swallow me whole. Jk ;) So I hope you guys like this chapter and again, I'm sorry it's so late and delayed and all but you all understand the woes of high school/college (I'm not sure what to call mine...it's kind of like an in-between state..hard to explain with the whole country difference, never mind) and PLEASE REVIEW and tell me what you think because I REEAALLY want to know what you guys think and constructive criticism is also welcome but I apologize in advance if I can't fix something because it's my first story and I still don't understand some of the formatting on the website etc. blah blah blah. Ok now getting back to the story. PLEASE REVIEW and enjoy! :)_

* * *

Hermione it become more and more difficult to breath. It wasn't because of the damp, stale smell in the air. Or the smell of burnt parchment that surrounded her. Her fingers trembled at the sight of the transformation that had occurred to Diagon Alley. This had been a beloved place for her, it felt like home. Draco look confused as well as he glanced at the ground and Greta slowly brought her hand up to her mouth.  
"You can go now, if you want to," Hermione finally spoke up, breaking the long silence. Her low voice still echoed in the street and it came out hoarse and shaky.  
Greta looked at her and nodded slightly. She looked as though she wanted to say something but just as she opened her mouth, Hermione heard someone call out " _Avada Kedvra!"_ and there was deafening cracking sound beside her. Greta fell limp and landed on the ground with a soft ' _thud'_ sound.  
Her eyes were still wide open.

Hermione couldn't make herself scream or speak or even look around. Her eyes were fixed on Greta's and in the corner of her vision she saw Draco's grey ones widen in shock at whoever stood behind them. Hermione felt her knees collapse under the weight of her body and she slowly sank to the ground. She heard footsteps approach closer and she heard someone speak loud and clearly but she couldn't make out the words. Greta's hand lay outstretched beside her, right in front of Hermione. In one swift motion Hermione had taken her wand and secured it under her sleeve when the jumble of voices beside her made her hurriedly turn around.  
Behind her stood a tall, lean man cloaked in black. He had a grey shaggy beard, slicked black grayish/white hair and dark, sharp eyes. Next to him stood two younger-looking men who looked completely identical except for the fact that one of them had a missing front tooth and the other one's ginger hair was shaved from one side. Or maybe ripped off, you could never be sure when it came to killers. The older man, who appeared to be the one in charge spoke in a deep, low voice that made a shiver run down Hermione's spine.  
"Malfoy? Ha, well isn't this a surprise? I wonder what Lucius would say if I were to tell him I found his son roaming around Diagon Alley, with-" he looked down at her "…a girl with a rat's nest for hair."  
His two accomplices laughed.  
Malfoy swallowed before saying: "Be careful Petrov. This is Lucinda's niece, Elisa. She's one of the Jacobsons. You don't want to go around spitting on great names like those again, do you? I think you and I both remember what happened last time."  
Petrov's expression turned even darker, which Hermione never thought was possible. She glanced at Malfoy but he didn't meet her eyes so she did her best to look petulant but she avoided Petrov's stare that she felt digging into her skull. She discreetly pulled both her sleeves way down so the 'mudblood' inscription could never be seen.  
"What the hell is going in on here then? What are you doing here? Who's the woman?"  
"Oh, her?" Malfoy said casually nodding at Greta. He began rolling up his sleeves in an arrogant fashion as if he was accustomed to all this.  
"That's Elisa's Professor. You really did a tremendous job killing her for some absurd reason. Elisa spent all her life in the Jacobson Manor but because of a few disruptions in their-ahem- livelihood, Professor Gretel here was supposed to take her to her old family home for the time being. And since the Malfoys are well-known for their brilliant hospitality, I was told to ask them to stop at the Manor, or even Hogwarts for that matter….but now, it seems we have a problem."  
There was a silence in which both Hermione and the Death Eaters took all this information in. The two identical-looking ones glanced at each other and then looked at the ground while Petrov glared at Malfoy. Hermione tried to look as angry as possible and stared at Petrov as well.  
"I'm not going to sit around asking for forgiveness of some pathetic little children. I'll answer for and inquire about my own crimes on my accord and to someone of authority. Now get up, we're going to pay your Father a little visit."  
"No!" Malfoy shot back. "I mean-no…we have to go to Hogwarts. The plan can't be changed. My father is a very busy man; he doesn't have time to babysit teenagers however important their families are. In case you've forgotten, he's the Dark Lord's most faithful servant and I'm not going go all the way home just when I returned back a few days ago, even if it's just to see you humiliated-"

Petrov growled and reached out and grabbed Malfoy by the collar. Malfoy looked like a dwarf next to him and although Hermione could tell he was scared, he did his best to look stubborn and arrogant…Malfoy's two most practiced looks.  
"Hogwarts isn't a problem. I know Severus…Amycus may not be too keen to see me after what happened between Alcto and I but that's not a problem. However, if you insult me one more time I swear on the grave of Salazar Slytherin, I will kill you before you can rat me out to your coward of a Father."  
Malfoy didn't respond but Petrov dropped him to the ground. The Caterwauling Charm would already have been placed in Hogsmeade at this time of the night. Rickwald, tell Rowan to turn it off for a minure, we're coming."

One of the ginger-haired Death Eater's nodded and began casting a spell. Hermione finally forced herself to stand up. Malfoy still avoided her eyes so she didn't look at him. _Why is he doing this?_ She felt herself wondering. She was sure he could survive much more easily without her. Why had he created such an elaborated story all for her then?  
"I'll keep a hold on these two, you two. Follow close behind," Petrov told the twins.  
Petrov moved closer towards Hermione and Malfoy and discreetly Malfoy brought his face near Hermione's ear and whispered: "Give me the wand. Iknowyouhaveit. Giveitorthisisover"  
She was sure he couldn't do that. He'd created this lie in the first place but Malfoy had already taken a grip of her arm as Petrov grabbed Malfoy's and to Hermione's fantastic luck, Malfoy took hold of the same arm whose sleeve she had concealed the wand into and so, very quickly, he pulled out the wand before Hermione could do anything, especially with Petrov looking directly at her.  
But then again, Malfoy had just maybe saved her life and was getting her into Hogwarts for whatever reason he had. She didn't trust him of course but maybe the wand being in his possession wasn't the worst thing possible. Maybe that was still to be experienced.  
But Hogwarts was home. Her friends were there or would be there soon. Hermione took one last deep breath of the stale, damp air and with a 'crack', they all vanished from Diagon Alley.


	14. The Dark Mark

**Hey guys, I went out of the city for a couple of weeks so I didn't get to write and I know you're probably used to this by now but sorry again for such a delayed chapter! My school work is also killing me but I forced myself to make time to write this (in other words: I procrastinated). I really hope you like this chapter and I realize that my previous one had loads of typos in it...sorry about that. Anyway, enjoy and do review! :)**

It was in a matter of minutes that the company had reached the gates of Hogwarts. They hadn't encountered any trouble. Upon reaching Hogsmeade, they met a lanky, gruff-looking Deatheater whom Hermione assumed was Rowan. Petrov gave him a few, curt instructions and almost no explanation as to why this odd company was going to Hogwarts at this time of the night. He seemed twitchy and anxious upon seeing them but he escorted them to Hogwarts with only a few mumbles on the way. Petrov was looking more and more uncomfortable as they approached the snowy Hogwarts gates. Malfoy, on the other hand, bore his usual hard glare with which he scanned his surroundings and Hermione did her best to avoid all stares that came her way.  
She shivered in the cold, chilly night and it wasn't long before snowflakes covered her eye lashes, her shoulders and her head. Hermione's mind kept wandering off to all the ways that things could go wrong when once they enter Hogwarts. It was very easy to come up with those. The only consolation she felt was that Harry and Ron would be at Hogwarts soon. Ron said they would come. They had to. She had no idea how they planned to not get killed there, or how they would even get inside but Hermione had faith in her friends.  
She just hoped their faith would be better than what she feared hers would be.  
By the time they reached the doors that opened to Hogwarts, Hermione's heart was banging on her chest and her body felt numb from the cold.  
Hogwarts looked more desolate and dark than Hermione had ever seen it to be. The halls were gloomy and cold and they met no one on their way up the stairs. Right when Hermione began to feel as though the entire castle had been abandoned, she saw a few Slytherins pass by and after they finally recognized her, they sneered and laughed. However, seeing Malfoy made their eyes widen with shock and they stopped in their tracks. Malfoy did his best to remain act natural as his old acquaintances and friends stared at him. Hermione heard the sound of screams coming from a room they passed but she continued walking straight ahead and when they reached the second floor, her heart stopped.  
In front of them, looking bewildered and paler than usual, was Snape.  
Hermione turned to look at Malfoy who had pursed his lips. So he didn't have a plan after all.  
Snape's eyes traveled from Hermione to Malfoy and then back to Hermione but Hermione thought she saw him discreetly swallow and, for a split second, his eyes revealed pain.  
Suddenly, there was a outburst of incoherent shouting and Snape, back to his usual cruel self, angrily turned his attention to the stairs, where the shouting was slowly increasing. A dark-haired Slytherin student whom Hermione recognized as Bliase Zabini ,came running towards him.  
"The Dark Mark! It's been cast by Alecto!" he exclaimed while panting. Snape's expression turned fearful and then was replaced immediately by a threatening one.  
Petrov and the ginger twins exchanged stunned looks and then stared at Snape. When he turned towards the stairs without a word, they followed him hurriedly, leaving Hermione, Malfoy and Blaise behind.

"Draco what the hell are you doing here?" Blaise exclaimed. His eyes then went t Hermione and his shock increased further. "And with her!"  
"No time to explain," Malfoy replied hurriedly."Why has the Dark Mark been cast? What's going on?"  
Somehow Blaise managed to overlook Hermione's presence once again and Hermione found out why.  
He lowered his voice and grimly replied: "I think I heard someone say Harry Potter's back. I didn't tell Snape because if I was wrong, he'd kill me."

At Harry's name, Hermione felt her pulse rise. As soon as Blaise had finished his sentence, she kicked him hard in his shin and punched Malfoy so fast, she wasn't sure of what she had done until she had sprinted halfway up the stairs. She snatched a wand from a shrieking First Year who had just spotted the glowing green Mark in the sky. She felt bad for leaving the poor girl shrieking in even more terror, but she couldn't help it. It had to be done. Hermione dodged the swarm of screaming confused students who were stumbling down the stairs and looked around at the crowd in confusion. Suddenly, she hit her head against one and stumbled back to regain her balance.  
"RON!" she squealed in a mixture of delight and bewilderment.  
"Hermione? It's you!" he exclaimed, rubbing his nose."How-where, HOW DID YOU GET HERE? WHERE WERE YOU?" he screamed over the noise of the crowd.  
"I..it doesn't matter!" she shouted back beaming, in midst of a swarm of confused and shouting students. "I thought you and Harry were going to come to Hogwarts tomorrow!"  
"You got my message?" Ron shouted with a huge grin on his face. Hermione nodded enthusiastically.  
"We planned to but the Harry kept having these dreams…nightmares actually, so we decided to come tonight!"  
Hermione nodded again to show that she understood. Then they both looked around at the crowd.  
"Where's Harry?' she shouted.  
"He's talking to McGonagall! He's looking for the diadem!"

"I know where it is," spoke a voice from behind. They both spun around to face Malfoy with a bloody nose, staring at them nonchalantly.  
Ron appeared to be on the verge of attacking him but Hermione quickly intervened by taking hold of his clenched fist.  
"I'd get it for you but I'd need something in return," Mafloy spoke softly, but grimly.  
Suddenly, Hermione realized that they were now standing in an empty hall. The murmur of the students' voices could be heard downstairs and McGonagall's strict voice giving some sort of instructions. But then, everyone went silent as a new, more unfamiliar voice boomed through the castle.  
 _"_ _I know that you are preparing to fight. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight._ "  
Hermione felt her heart beat violently against her chest as the last words echoed through her head. She stared at Malfoy who looked as though he was lost deep in thought.  
"Where is it?" she asked calmly and sternly. She didn't bother to raise her wand and her arm still ached slightly from the punch.  
"I said I wanted something in return-"  
"What is it!" Ron bellowed threateningly. Malfoy didn't flinch though. He continued speaking in his cool manner.  
"My mother and I… and my father of course,"- he added hastily-"are given freedom to live how we always did…without any interference from the bloody Ministry. And we are provided safety from any old servants or supporters of the Dark- ehrm- from Voldemort".  
Hermione gazed at him, transfixed.  
"Oh and if the Dark Lord wins this battle, because it really looks like he will, then this deal never happened, understood? _No one_ will ever know about this" Here, he stared hard at Hermione, as if she held the number one prize for being a tattletale. Ron let out a sarcastic laugh.  
"How about I beat you up instead, you coward!"  
Malfoy dodged out of the way before Ron's fist connected with his face and they both whipped out their wands immediately and pointed them at each other's faces.  
"STOP!" Hermione shouted. "This is not going to get us anywhere! Malfoy, no one's punishing your family, alright? But if you want to fight on both sides, then go ahead. If Voldemort wins, no one will protect you or your parents Draco. Not us and definitely not Voldemort and I doubt he'll bother listening to our claims about any deal so fine, you can be a successful traitor, are you happy now? So where's the diadem?"  
Malfoy didn't seem to have taken in much of what Hermione had said due to the commotion downstairs and probably because Hermione assumed that he stopped listening whenever he felt even slightly downgraded. Still, he responded with: "In the Room Of Requirement. But it'll take days for you to find it."  
"It's a trap," Ron seethed but just then, they heard Crabbe and Goyle shouting nearby. They were approaching the hall they stood in. Malfoy cursed under his breath.  
"I don't have all day."  
Ron looked at Hermione."I know how to destroy the Cup. The Basilisk fang…I have to destroy it." Hermione nodded. She felt as if her head was about to explode.  
"Go, find Harry. I'll get the diadem. Meet me in front of the Room of Requirement."  
"No way!" Malfoy said.  
"It's not like your friends won't be there soon, looking for you either Malfoy. It's fair."  
And with that, Hermione took off running towards the third floor and she could hear Malfoy's steps follow, just missing Crabbe and Goyle.


	15. Fiendfyre

**Hey guys! Yeah, sorry again for the very long delay, I feel terrible about it but there's not much I can do about the fact I have loads of work. I now this story is dragging but I have a pretty cool end in mind so just stick with me till then. I would really, really, really love reviews so do tell me what you think! Thanks for all the follows and favorites! :) xx**

Somehow, Malfoy and Hermione managed to reach the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor very quickly in all the commotion and the rush. Hermione stopped in front of it and panted heavily while clutching her knees. Malfoy's hand traced the wall delicately as if it were an old friend of his. His expression was dark. The Room was closed, which meant that all its occupants had left the Room, including Ginny, Hermione thought.  
Mr. Weasley would be furious.  
Draco closed his eyes and walked left and right three times until the door appeared and they both snuck inside.  
The Room of Requirement, or the Room of Hidden Things, as it has become, was larger than Hermione expected. It was gigantic. There were thousands and thousands of books piled on top of each other and old, broken bookshelves. Harry had described the Room to her in their sixth year but Hermione hadn't predicted it to be this huge. There were suits of amour (broken and unbroken), broomsticks, portraits, frisbees, a banjo, trophies , numerous swords, velvet cloaks, jewels, hats, cordials and potion bottles, chests and mirrors, dozens of cages in every size and what Hermione guessed to be- a stuffed Troll. She had to force herself to not stop in her tracks to look at all the objects while Malfoy determinedly walked faster and faster around the items. She quickened her pace so he may remain in her view and tore her eyes away from a heavy-looking book titled " _The Battle of Hogwarts_ ". Anyway, she had had enough of fortune-telling since her first Divination class.  
" _Accio Diadem",_ she whispered, but apart from the sound of Draco's fading footsteps, the Room remained deadly silent and nothing happened. It must be a Horcrux trait, she assumed.  
After some time, Draco finally stopped in front of the broken Vanishing Cabinet. Hermione recalled the time in her sixth year when she had been trapped inside it with Draco. They weren't very fond memories. He cautiously opened the cupboard and all that could be seen inside was darkness. Hermione peered at the black abyss and then back at Malfoy whose face slowly twisted into an expression of fury.  
" _Potter_!" he spat out with what seemed to be- as much disgust he could muster out.  
"He moved it. He was always messing around with the cabinet. Dumping his old text books in it… That idiot! It's gone. I saw it last in here."  
"Malfoy, if it was inside then there would be no way to get it back since the cabinet's broken, so Harry didn't…"  
She was cut off by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching them. They both turned sharply around to find Crabbe and Goyle walking towards them. Crabbe's face was twisted in a smirk and Goyle looked more confused than threatening.

"Crabbe..."Malfoy began, his eyes widening.  
"I don't care what you're doing her Malfoy, and why you're walking around with a mudblood. For all I care, you two could be running off to get married in France. No, you know why I don't care? Because what I'm here to do is far more interesting than what you were _planning_ to do. I'm going to become the Dark Lord's favorite. I am going to kill Harry Potter! Ye and yer dad are finished Malfoy…" he said laughing. Malfoy's face turned grim.  
"Why the hell are you here then? Potter's not here you bloody idiot. Did you come here to ask me for help so you can find him and kill him and take all the credit? Always trailing after me? Still the fat, dumb, useless idiot that you were at 12, huh?"  
Crabbe yelled out spell that Hermione didn't hear properly because in the next moment, there was a loud crash behind her and wood splinters crashed into her head. Malfoy had clearly avoided it and he shot back a curse while Goyle and Hermione ducked behind objects. The chest behind Crabbe flew high up and came crashing back into the ground.  
"Expellia-!" Hermione bellowed but her voice was drowned by Crabbe's deeper and louder one that shouted "EXPULSO!" and Hermione was thrown backwards into a large tower of books and she blacked out.

When she woke up, the sound of fighting could still be heard so Hermione could tell she hadn't been out for long. She was buried under numerous enormous stacks of books and she struggled to sit up. Emerging from the wreckage, she felt a sticky substance running down her forehead and she didn't have to see it to know that it was blood. Malfoy and his "friends" had obviously moved away during their fight and Hermione could hear them closely but they weren't to be seen around. She shuffled around looking for her wand under the great debris of books.  
" _Accio wand_ "  
With her wand in her hand, Hermione cast a quick spell to temporarily stop the bleeding from her forehead that had become not only painful, but had also impaired her vision. She then carefully rushed towards the voices and saw Crabbe holding his wand high up, his face twisted into a mad grin, blood rushing down his cheek. Malfoy was slowly backing away from him, his back towards Hermione, while mouthing words that Hermione was sure were audible but her ears couldn't register them. Goyle was limping backward too, with a dazed expression on his face.  
"Hermione?" a familiar voice spoke from what Hermione felt to be a 100 miles away.  
She turned to find Ron standing beside a large cage a little far to her right. Beside him stood Harry, who had not yet seen her. His eyes were fixed on Crabbe.  
"I WILL KILL HIM, JUST YOU WATCH MALFOY! I WILL KILL HARRY POTTER! THE DARK LORD WILL SEE!"  
Malfoy didn't reply but instead kept backing away right towards where Hermione stood. He didn't register her presence.  
Crabbe screamed out a curse that Hermione felt sure she had heard before. Or read in a book, but she couldn't remember where or what it was for and silently reproached her own knowledge for abandoning her right when she needed it. But she didn't need to find out what it was for because a huge flame emerged from the tip of Crabbe's wand and shot up to the ceiling, from where it curved down and split into different flames, each moving outwards, but all going forward.  
Without any hesitation, they all ran forward as the red flames lit up the entire room. Hermione felt her back burning as she ran past falling furniture and giant suits of armor. The heat behind her was getting stronger and she couldn't even tell if she was running towards the entrance of the room or not. There was no time to stop and look. As she crossed a broken-framed mirror, she caught a glance at the fire behind her and saw that the gigantic flame behind her had taken the shape of a snake.  
 _Fiendfyre,_ she remembered. Yes, that's what it was. An uncontrollable fire that had the ability to engulf everything it came in contact with. Even its creator.  
There was a sharp turn and Hermione slipped and crashed hard into a body, and was sent her rolling sideways on the ground. She glanced sideways to see Malfoy's dusty and scratched face look up straight at the fire. The flame-snake opened its mouth at them and Hermione felt sure she heard a hissing sound from amongst the uproar and crashing of objects around her. The scorching heat was getting stronger by the second and Malfoy raised his newly-sown fingered hand up to shield his face and screamed.

Hermione found herself suddenly upright and she flung herself at Malfoy and they both went sliding behind a huge tower of broken chairs, lilac robes, and cauldrons.  
All of which, that begun collapsing over them when the flame whizzed by.  
Fortunately, Hermione's head was saved from the falling objects (especially cauldrons) by a huge bloody axe that was stuck to the wall right above her head so everything that fell, hit the axe and landed beside her. Her own leg and Malfoy were not so lucky. She felt a sharp, burning sensation in her leg but even before the tower of objects had stopped falling to the ground; Hermione spotted another flame headed in their direction. Using the debris for support, she pulled her body up from under the rubble. Her hand grasped a sharp object and she almost dropped it to the ground when it suddenly shimmered brightly in the dark orange and black colors that filled her vision.  
It was the diadem.  
Hermione clutched it strongly in one hand and her wand (which she had miraculously held on to) in the other and forced herself to stand up. There was a piece of a broken dagger emerging from her leg that she quickly pulled out. The pain in her leg made her want to scream and she struggled to remain standing. Tears blurred her vision but she spotted Malfoy's hand showing from underneath a book case. She cast a quick spell and his body emerged from underneath. There was a huge gash in his shoulder and his eyes had just opened when Hermione pulled at his good arm and they were running madly again. However, she had only taken a few steps when she felt her legs begin to cave in.  
She couldn't stop now. She didn't even feel any pain anymore, she was numb. Her leg began to feel heavy and immovable and she tried to drag it along but she was too slow and was only slowing down further and further. The heat of the approaching flames behind her burned her neck and she fell towards the ground.  
Malfoy was trying to run as fast as he could, but he could only manage a jog as he clutched his chest desperately. He turned back to glance at the flames and saw her struggling hard to get up. He thrust his hand out, took hold of her shoulder and yanked it upwards. She used her unhurt leg to push herself upward and they were both limping together again. Hermione had to use his arm for support and because of a bloody cut above his eye, Malfoy was basically running blind. He almost hit a sword and Hermione had to tug at him to make sure they went in the right direction. But what was the right direction? They were running aimlessly through a maze of falling objects and she was sure they were dead.  
Her fear was confirmed when they found themselves staring at a wall ahead of them and the Fiendfyre right behind them.  
"OYE! OVER HERE!" Ron's voice bellowed from above her. Ron and Harry were coming towards them on two brooms. She saw Goyle flying above them all towards what she assumed was the entrance of the Room. She thrust out a hand towards Ron and he pulled her up swiftly. Harry took hold of a terrified Malfoy who barely managed to get on the broom before the Fiendfyre attacked the wall. Hermione could smell her hair get burnt from the edges as they flew higher and higher and that's when she saw the entrance door of the Room. It looked so small and Hermione could barely recall a moment when she had breathed anything but smoke. Goyle, alone on his broom, flew out of the door as she heard Malfoy scream as they lowered down towards the ground and she clutched Ron tightly, with both diadem and wand in hand.  
Right when she felt the flames completely engulf them and their entrance was covered with fire, Hermione felt a sudden cold rush of air and they crashed into a cold, concrete wall.  
Slowly, Hermione sat up and looked around, coughing. The doorway of the Room was now gone and there was only a wall that had always been there, unharmed and unchanged.  
The Room was gone for good.  
She immediately uncurled her fist and the hand that had held the diadem so tightly, now held only ashes. She looked up to see Ron and Harry's ashen, yet soot-filled faces staring at her intently. She nodded back.  
Another horcrux destroyed.  
Malfoy and Goyle stood up and stared at the grey wall, transfixed. Goyle ran his hand over it, shocked and confused. Malfoy just stared at the ground. The pain in her leg came back and through gritted teeth she immediately began slowly uttering spells that would at least temporarily stop the bleeding and the pain. Hermione didn't think she could sympathize for his loss just yet. Or ever, probably.


	16. The Battle Of Hogwarts

**Hey guys..so you all must definitely hate me by now. I know I have left you hanging for more than a month. Two maybe? I'm not sure I even wanna know. But instead of making excuses like how school was destroying my life, I had to leave the city twice and had exams this month (all true btw) I'm just going to get on with it. It's super long compared to the previous one and _viola!_ \- it's the SECOND-LAST ONE!  
I don't know if that will make you happy or sad but if you'll miss this, then just know that so will I (hard to believe but I honestly do love writing for you guys...I am just terrible at the time thing).  
I would LOVE reviews because I haven't heard from anyone in the LONGEST time. Yes I know I am very, very, very late, so again, I'm sorry for that but if you have anything else to say about my story or this chapter, PLEASE DO! Pretty pleeasee! Sorry again!  
I hope you all enjoy this one! (oh and last chapter is coming very soon! Seriously)**

**********

Death and destruction was all around them. The air was full of dust, smoke… and blood. Sounds of screams and objects breaking, bodies falling and people crying made a river of noise that was so loud and disturbing that Hermione felt her head would explode.  
However, she didn't have time to observe the destruction around her and she took off running behind Harry and Ron, blocking out the sounds and images she passed. Leaving Malfoy and Goyle gaping at the wall, they somehow managed to make it down to the Great Hall. Hermione wasn't sure why Harry had run all the way here until he suddenly took them aside to a fairly empty spot, turned around and spoke to both of them.  
"I have to go to the Shrieking Shack, Voldemort's in there."  
"Mate, you do understand what you just said was contradictory, right?" Ron commented.  
Suddenly, Hermione remembered the Slytherin locket.  
"What about the locket? Shouldn't we first-"  
"I know, it's destroyed. I found out when I placed my hand in the pocket where I kept it and all that came out was ash. The Fiendfyre must've destroyed it."  
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief…which was strange for her since they were crouching behind a large upturned-table while a bloody battle was taking place all around them. Ron actually gave a smile.  
"Alright mate, we're with you till-"he was interrupted by the sound of familiar, yet comforting voices approaching them.

It was Percy and Fred. Hermione's heartbeat slowed at the sight of them as they battled an approaching Death Eater- Thicknesse. He was the 'current' Minister of Magic, Hermione remembered.  
"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a jinx straight at him and he dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes madly. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"  
"You're joking, Perce!" Fred shouted as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee and Hermione was amazed at how the two brothers could fight Death Eaters in such a careless, relaxed manner.  
"You actually are joking, Perce… . I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"

Suddenly there was an explosion. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two injured Death Eaters were sent flying backwards in a span of microseconds. Right when danger seemed temporarily gone, their world was blown apart, Hermione felt herself flying through the air, and she held the thin stick of wood that was her one and only weapon, tightly in her hand and tried to shield her head in his arms. She heard the screams and yells of her friends, hoping she could just know what had happened to them.  
As her world dissolved into pain and semidarkness, she was half buried in the wreckage of the table that she had previously sought refuge behind. Cold air greeted her and Hermione felt a small sense of relief that at least she was able to breathe. The hot stickiness on her cheek told her that she was bleeding plentifully. She then heard a loud, blood-curdling scream that pulled at her insides and made her feel more powerless than she had ever felt before…and possibly more terrified as well.

Panic and pain gave her the strength to push aside the slab of wood over her head and she struggled to stand up. Harry staggered towards her and helped her up. They stumbled over the wreckage and reached the group of the three redheads who were crowded together.  
"No – no – no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!"

Percy was shaking his brother and Ron was kneeling beside them. Hermione gasped when she saw Fred's eyes. They stared without seeing but the ghost of his last laugh was still etched upon his face.

Hermione had a floating sensation as though she was slowly disappearing or fading away from reality. The pain in her cheek had also disappeared and Fred's pale, eerie face seemed to have enveloped her vision. She was aware of holding Harry's hand but her arms and legs were numb, along with her feelings. Gradually, Ron's sobbing grew louder and louder in her head and her bleeding caught up to the pain. But it was nothing compared to the anguish and torment she felt.

It was abnormal…disturbing, twisted even, to see Fred's face without its natural smirk, or laugh, or smile, or even just an expression of life. As she watched Ron cry over Fred's lifeless body, and Percy make feeble attempts to protect his dead brother from harm by shielding him with his body, Hermione felt utter despair and terror. Even saving the world came with a price, and it was a price that everyone had to pay. There wasn't simply a bad or good ending, or a result of their efforts. You couldn't just succeed or lose.  
It was a war.  
It had always been a war. There were neither good, nor bad, and neither were there any prizes to be won. Everything was at stake. After Hermione had wiped her parents' memory, it was only her own life that she was risking by accompanying Harry and Ron. Or so she had believed. She was trying to save lives, forgetting how many would be lost on the way. The sacrifice that came with trying to save the world or even existing- in her case- had always followed them. They had just never paid such a large price for it yet. And now they had, and Hermione's heart beat violently at the thought of other deaths of her fellow students or friends, that she may even have passed by unknowingly without making any attempt to help them.  
She looked at Harry's ashen and grim face: he had known of the sacrifice he was making. He had known that even by letting his friends come along, he would be risking their lives and would have to watch others die. He had already watched Sirius die. Dumbledore, Cedric, Dobby, Mad-Eye Moody…the list could easily go on.  
Overcome with both emotion and numbness, Hermione squeezed Harry's hand and they both began to gently pull Ron away from Fred. Hermione spotted a large spider emerging from a hole in the wall and before she could raise her wand, Ron turned towards it and shouted an incoherent spell that blew the spider into a million pieces all over the room.  
The blast had somehow calmed Percy down and together, they all moved Fred's body to the side where the strengthening battle could not reach him.

Ron hastily wiped the smeared blood from his face that suddenly contorted in rage.  
"I'm going. I have to kill 'em..I have to kill them all 'Arry, I'll do it…"  
"No Ron," Harry answered calmly and he gently took hold of Ron's arm to prevent him from entering into the thick battle directly in front of them. Hermione turned to see Percy fighting off a Death Eater with his face full of spite.  
Hermione moved towards Ron and held his shoulder.  
"Ron, listen to me. We have to find Voldemort. We have to kill the snake: the last horcrux. Ron, if we do that, this battle will be over. We can end this. We have to end this. Please."  
With that, she gently touched her finger to his cheek. Ron didn't look up at her immediately. When he did, he met Harry's eyes- that shone brightly in the dark, dull surroundings. They shared an eloquent look and Ron straightened up.  
"Let's go then."

Hidden under Harry's cloak, they ran to the Hogwarts grounds that only last year, they had leisurely strolled through… back when their school hadn't been a battleground.  
All around them, people fought and jinxes and curses were being thrown at every side. Although they were invisible, it was immensely difficult to avoid the whizzing spells.  
Hermione spotted Dean and Peeves fighting Dolohov and the Travers. They also saw Malfoy pleading a Death Eater for his life and assuring him that he wasn't "part of Potter's army". Harry cast a swift jinx on the Death Eater and Hermione quickly shoved Malfoy harshly out of the way as the Death Eater tried to cast a last-second spell aimed at Malfoy whom he assumed somehow jinxed him. He landed hard on his nose and Ron spat out a swear word at him as they quickly passed by.

Wizards all around her yelled and screamed. Spiders, giants, stone knights, moved passed them. Hermione felt as though she heard the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange somewhere far away. She could recognize her cackles anywhere.  
Far off, next to the path that led to Hagrid's castle, almost obscured from her vision, she saw Lavender lying semi-conscious in a wreckage of a stone pillar and Fenir stood above her, almost proudly. Hermione cast a jinx his way but it missed him by a long shot and Fenir didn't even bother turning. Hermione knew that she was too far away. Fenir was getting closer to Lavender.  
Hermione had to think fast, no one was near Lavender.  
"I…I.." and with that Hermione emerged from the Invisibility cloak and took off running. In all the commotion around her, no one saw her appear out of thin air. She was conscious of Ron shouting something but she couldn't hear him. She dodged stray spells and everyone seemed to be too preoccupied to take notice of her. She sprinted straight towards Greyback, who kept his back towards her, facing Lavender, who had propped herself up on her elbows but still seemed unable to make a movement. Greyback leaned in…  
" _REDUCTO_!" Hermione bellowed from far behind.  
Greyback flew backwards, crashing into a stone column and collapsing on the ground. Lavender's pale face scanned her surroundings and she gazed in a dazed manner.  
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, just as there was a loud explosion behind her and was thrown forwards into the ground and she fell unconscious.

When Hermione woke up, the blood from her cheek had blurred all her vision. She sat up and wiped her eyes. She was alive. But how? All around her, wizards dueled each other and no one took notice of her. She looked down at her shirt and saw blood covering her neck and the front of her shirt. It was mostly dry but some of it was not. She could easily pass for a casualty among them all. Without wasting any time, Hermione scanned the ground for her wand but she couldn't see it anywhere.  
" _Accio wand"  
_ Nothing happened. Not again…

Hermione saw Malfoy fighting off a muddled Giant in a distance. She quickly got up and let out a small scream of pain, her bloodied face felt as though it was on fire. Malfoy turned around swiftly, pointing his wand at her. His nose looked slightly crooked from when Hermione had pushed him and his blonde hair and pale face was covered in ash and dirt. He frowned when he saw her.  
"Granger? What the bloody- I thought you were dead,"  
He suddenly glanced at his wand for a split second but Hermione had had enough experience to know the truth.  
"Give me back my wand."  
"I lost mine..I- no. I need it more than you. Left behind by Potter huh?"  
"I need it to get back to them! I need to fight! Now Malfoy!"  
It was too late, as a Death Eater, glanced at her and raised his wand approaching closer. He didn't utter a curse though, which was strange.  
"You!" he said coming closer. He completely ignored Malfoy who was standing lamely with a wand pointed towards her.  
The Death Eater had a grey beard with streaks of black in it and there was a nasty cut above his left eyebrow. However, compared to his fellow Death Eaters, Hermione thought he didn't look as threatening. In fact, he looked almost worried.  
"I know you're Potter's friend," he said pointing a wand straight at Hermione's throat."I've seen you running about with him, you know where he is."  
His grey eyes looked deep into Hermione's own and his expression shifted from anger to almost fear. He lowered his voice.  
"Tell him to end this. Tell him to give himself to the Dark Lord." He paused and looked down before speaking again."I have just dueled with my own nephew..I'm not sure if he's still alive." He looked at Hermione and his face turned dark again.  
"GIVE HARRY POTTER TO THE DARK LORD"  
He hesitated a little at Voldemort's title.  
"It will not end anything…" Hermione said in a low voice. She almost sounded desperate.  
"Hold on…" Malfoy spoke up from behind them."I'm the one who found her Jacob."  
Jacob…so they knew each other, Hermione thought. "Don't you think I should be the one doing the ' _convincing'_ then? The Dark Lord knows trusts my family the most, so if you think you can take all the credit for turning in Harry Potter, you are mistaken, friend."  
Hermione wasn't sure where he was going with this.  
"And anyway," he continued. "the Dark Lord wouldn't exactly appreciate your efforts once he found out you were only doing it to end the war." Malfoy smirked proudly and his dark grey eyes glimmered.  
"You wouldn't dare to," Jacob seethed. His wand hand was now pointed at Malfoy and he had lost all his fear and it was replaced with resentment. His nose flared and his eyes widened at Malfoy, who remained calm apart from a slight tremble in his outstretched wand hand.  
Now that she had two males fighting over her, Hermione began to plan her escape. If she tried to run for it, Jacob would surely jinx (or something worse?) her before she could even turn around. She was too close.  
So Hermione did the next best thing and kicked him hard behind his knee  
Jacob yelled in pain and stumbled forwards, but before Hermione could kick again, Jacob muttered a spell and a ball of fire came hurling at her face. She tried duck quickly but her ears, along with the previously-unharmed cheek burned fell on the ground hard and flinched in pain.  
Malfoy looked from her to Jacob, in confusion. He then quickly straightened up with his wand pointed at Jacob- who slowly got to his feet. His wand dangled loosely in his fingers. There was a loud sound of something exploding in the castle, followed by screams of terror. Jacob looked from Malfoy's hard face to Hermione's pained one. He took a few gulps of air and then, to Hermione's surprise stifled out a low sob. Malfoy's look of disgust was probably partially authentic, Hermione noted. Although he himself was far from being one of the most courageous person around.

"I can't stand this anymore," the Death Eater croaked. "Fine, you do it," he said glancing up tiredly at  
Malfoy.  
A look of uncertainty crossed Malfoy's face but he immediately straightened up and shrugged. "Yeah, of course I'll do it. As if you could."  
Despite the blazing sensation Hermione felt, she managed to temporarily replace her grimace with an I-sewed-your-bloody-fingers-and-saved-you-from-a-bear-just-for-this look which involved a fiery glare towards Malfoy. He quickly looked back at Jacob who had turned towards Hermione and gazed at her with a blank countenance. Malfoy took a deep breath and stepped closer. Hermione glared at him, she couldn't say she was surprised that he was doing this. Her heartbeat began to rise slowly but she remained calm. She wasn't scared of Malfoy or the Death Eater; she definitely wasn't going to tell them anything. She didn't even know where Harry and Ron were anyway.

By the edge of her vision, Hermione spotted a tall Death Eater standing far off, glance at Malfoy and start walking towards them. Malfoy saw him too when the Death Eater called out towards him. He was getting closer. Malfoy gave a fleeting look at Hermione and shot a spell. Hermione instinctively shielded her face with her hands and she was hit with a jet of icy cold water. Opening her eyes, she immediately ducked to avoid a large boulder flying towards her and as it whizzed past, she saw Jacob and the approaching Death Eater were knocked backwards by the flying rubble that crashed straight onto them. They were almost half-buried under the concrete and rocks when the attack suddenly ended. Hermione looked up at Malfoy, stunned and he merely shrugged and answered: "You're welcome," nodding towards the puddle at her feet.  
Hermione pursed her lips obstinately and achingly stood up.  
"It's about time you pay me back for all I've done for you…and put up with you," she added.  
"Oh please. You owe me Granger,"  
"For what? Fixing your fingers through a _muggle_ method? For saving you from being engulfed by a Fiendfyre your best mate started?"  
"You didn't fix them! I can't move my fingers you know," he complained.  
Hermione rolled her eyes as he began walking away.  
"Hey, I want my wand back!" she called out at him.  
Malfoy grunted and slowly walked up to the unconscious Death Eaters. One of their hands held a wand and hung limply over a rock. Malfoy snatched the wand quickly and tossed Hermione hers.  
"This never happened," he called back as he began sprinting away, hurriedly.  
Hermione shook her head, exasperated.

She began running back to the castle when suddenly, a cold, terrifying voice boomed in Hermione head, forcing her to fall under its pressure. It was Voldemort himself.  
 _"You've fought valiantly, but in vain... I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I therefore command my forces to retreat... In their absence, dispose your dead with dignity, Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. On this night, you have allowed your friends to die for you, rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonor. Join me in the Forbidden Forrest...and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman and child who tries to conceal you from me. You have one hour"  
_  
Hermione felt a cold shiver run down her spine. She had to find Harry and Ron. However, when she saw Neville and Luna battling a Dementor, Hermione's main priority became shifted to helping her friends around her. By the time they had defeated the Dementor, the enemy forces had reduced to almost nothing. The Death Eaters had all retreated to the Forbidden Forest. Hermione found herself wondering if Malfoy was with them but then her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Padma Patil scream over her Parvati's body.  
After some examination led by Trelawney, they realized Parvati wasn't dead, only terribly injured and Hermione, along with Luna, Ginny and Neville, began moving injured students outside, inside the crumbling Hogwarts building. There, Professor Flitwick and Trelawney, along with a few Ravenclaw 7th years, tended to them.  
The dead bodies were lain on the side, where Trelawney conjured up white sheets to cover them with. An eerie silence surrounded the castle halls. It was only interrupted by whispers, sobs, whimpers and a few coughs.  
However, when anyone did speak, they instinctively talked in a soft, hushed voices as if not to wake the dead. The air was filled with blood and dust. Now that the fighting had ceased, the true horror and loss from the battle began to show distinctively. Everyone bore marks of injury or pain. A few first years sat huddled in a corner crying softly and Hermione felt her heart sinking at the sight of all the carnage that had taken place. And to think that they were the evidence of war. The students. The teachers. Hogwarts.  
Not all injuries could be healed simply by magic, therefore, Hermione spent the next half hour cleaning wounds and teaching them how to effectively tie a bandage.

"Hermione!" a voice boomed through the hall. She looked up to see Ron running up to her. He bent down and embraced her.  
Hermione had all sorts of different blood smeared on her along with dust and dirt, so hugging Ron in the felt strange as she sat amongst a group of teary-eyed children who looked at her quizzically, but also comforting.  
"I thought you might've been dead. I mean, of course…you're smart and all.."his voice trailed off. Fred's body also probably lay here somewhere.  
She nodded and stroked his arm gently."Where's Harry?"  
Ron looked up at her and took a deep breath. Just then, she saw Harry appear in the doorway of the Great Hall. He looked aged and shaken. His face was pale and he looked drained of all life. She had never seen him like this before.  
He looked at Hermione and gave her a small smile. Hermione felt her heart shatter.  
However, Harry didn't enter the hall. He disappeared behind the wall and Hermione looked back at Ron who hadn't seem to have seen Harry at all. She was about to ask him where Harry was going when he quietly said: "Hermione, Snape's dead."

By the time Ron had finished telling her what had happened, they had both run outside but it was too late. Harry was nowhere to be seen, possibly because he was wearing his invisibility cloak, Hermione guessed. She couldn't believe he was doing this. No, maybe he had gone to find Ginny. There had to be another reason he was leaving the castle. There was nothing they could do but anxiously wait. After what seemed like hours and hours but could hardly have been half an hour, Hermione and Ron spotted Hagrid coming out of the Forest..holding something. Many other people had seen him too because more and more students and teachers approached the castle door. But it wasn't just Hagrid alone. There was someone in front of him. Everyone began collecting outside the castle to get a better view and were greeted by none other than Voldemort.  
But even more shocking was what Hagrid held in his arms.

It was the dead body of Harry Potter.

Hermione's next moments passed in a haze. Her scream, along with McGonagall's, Ron's and Ginny's, was of pure terror and anguish. Hermione felt herself unable to breathe. Her world was crashing all around her.  
Everything happened at once after that. There was Neville and an army of students, teachers, members of the Order and numerous species of magically creatures that attacked the Death Eaters all at once. The Battle moved inside the castle and in a matter of minutes, Hermione found herself battling the woman who tortured her almost to death – Bellatrix Lestrange.  
However, Mrs Weasley killed her with a neat curse straight at her chest. Everything was spinning around Hermione. There was Gawp fighting spiders and the centaurs shooting arrows at the Death Eaters. Ron battled Greyback and Neville-who had achieved the impossible task of killing Nagini, was valiantly fighting off three Death Eaters at once.  
Suddenly, she saw Harry appear in the crowd and her heart skipped a beat.  
He was alive. How? How was that possible?  
Her world was spinning even faster now and she was sure she was going to fall.  
Voldemort and Harry stood facing each other in the center of the room. All the duelers around them ceased fighting Hermione could feel the end of the Battle grow near. The end of their quest to defeat Voldemort was at its final moments.  
 _Neither could live while the other survives._

Hermione stood beside Ginny and Ron, both of whom looked as though they had been through hell. They actually had. Voldemort began speaking to Harry in a low, cold voice. It was oozing with contempt and resentment. Of course it would be if the boy who he thought he finally succeeded in killing after 17 years, now stood in front of him fairly unharmed considering he was hit by a (Hermione assumed) killing curse. Harry's voice echoed loudly in the hall, it was coherent and brave, Hermione felt joy and fear surge all through her body.  
Harry began explaining how Snape was never solely loyal to Voldemort. How Dumbledore was ready to die, how he was willing to die. Therefore, Snape was not the rightful owner of the Elder wand, Draco was. Draco had been the one to disarm Dumbledore; however, Harry had disarmed Draco at the Malfoy Manor during all the commotion.  
The Elder Wand, belonged to him.  
Voldemorts' face contorted with rage,  
" _AVADA KEDAVRA!"_  
" _EXPELLIARMUS!"  
_ There was a flash of green light from one side, and blue from the other and they joined to somehow turn into a long, beam of golden light. The Elder Wand flew from Voldemort's hand, into Harry's and Voldemort's spell backfired at him and he was knocked backwards, unconscious.  
Dead. 

The hall erupted in ovation.  
The Battle was over.

 **COMMENTS! Thanks you for reading this! xx :)**


	17. Epilogue (or New Years Eve)

**Thank you so, so, so much for all those who followed, favorite-ed, or read my story. I had a great (and yes, sometimes hard) time writing for you all and I hope you enjoyed reading my story. And maybe one day if I have enough time and the ability to write, I'll write another one here. I'm sorry if you don't like the epilogue/ending, I just liked the idea of...well, this. Thank you for sticking with me for all this time** (always :')) **. Hope you enjoy! :D Xx**

Hermione couldn't tell exactly how or why she attended the New Year party. When she had shown Ron the invitation, he had burst into a fit of laughter. However, it had quickly transformed into shock when he saw Hermione's thoughtful expression.  
"You can't seriously be considering attending… _this!_ " _  
"_ I haven't decided anything, Ron. But there's no harm in considering, they - I mean - _she_ has invited me...very politely too, may I add. I can't just decline without a reason."  
"You do have a reason! Thousands of 'em! How about the fact that her husband is a grade-A ars…"

Ron went on and on exasperatedly and very soon, Hermione was sure that he had forgotten he was trying to dissuade her from going but was more involved in stating every reason to hate 'him'. Hermione effortlessly zoned out and went back to studying her parchment.  
Zoning out effectively was a skill she had picked up when she and started spending, well, more time with Ron. By this time (a year into their marriage), Hermione had mastered it. After watching the Quidditch France/Bulgaria World Cup with their friends, all the way home and for the next few days, Ron had spoken of only the match, and how it was a foul on Viktor Krum's part when the French seeker had mysteriously been hit on the nose. Hermione had argued about it with Ron, all through the first night, but then she had given up and let Ron sulk for the coming weeks.  
When Ron saw that his protests and efforts to persuade Hermione not to go, was having the opposite effect, he switched to brooding and told her that he would rather vomit out _and_ eat a whole bucket of slugs, than go to the party. Hermione couldn't exactly blame him completely for feeling this way. 

A year after Hermione had joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, another woman had started working at a post much junior to Hermione's, in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Most of the wizards in Hermione's department were much older than her and joked how easily they could manipulate young witches. However, Hermione was happy to note, they were unsuccessful in their attempts to woo the very young, mysterious woman.  
Her jet black coronet of hair and dark blue eyes, made her conspicuous, but she carried herself gracefully in spite of the prying looks she received from witches and wizards alike.  
Very soon, however, it came to be known that she was already engaged and the inquisitive looks grudgingly died away. When a woman claiming to be the girl's, friend's acquaintance, told Hermione that a secret wedding had taken place that "shockingly" no one from the office was invited to, Hermione felt as though she had entered Rita Skeeter's dream life.

Apart from a couple of professional conversations, Hermione and the woman – Astoria – had never spoken. That is, until one day in an elevator, Hermione had broken the awkward silence by recounting what a sleepless night she had all because her husband's favorite team lost at Quidditch again. Astoria had lightly laughed at that and sympathized saying her husband was "the same".

They spoke a few more times after that, discussing how the disgusting patriarchal system was still very much alive in society and how troublesome the floo network was.  
However, it was only when Hermione, along with many others, had received an invitation for a Winter Solstice dinner party at Malfoy Manor, Hermione realized Astoria was the wife of her childhood enemy Draco Malfoy.

"Why the hell would anyone celebrate Winter Solstice?" was Ron's response and Hermione had politely declined quickly.  
There was no way she was going to that house again. Or meeting the Malfoys.  
However, next year came another invitation for a New Year's Eve party and Hermione felt hesitant about rejecting again.

Ron couldn't believe she could consider celebrating New Year's at _his_ mansion instead of Harry's place like they do every year. Ron made it clear he wasn't coming along and later, Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to either. In fact, she _definitely_ did not want to go.  
However, her plan to politely decline was thwarted when Astoria came up to her the next day to make sure she was coming.  
"Ron..my, ehrm, husband isn't exactly feeling well and I thought-"  
"Oh it's alright if your husband…doesn't well, um, if he can't make it. There's no need to explain," she replied understandingly.  
Hermione had a feeling Draco's history of childhood enemies had been revealed to Astoria already.

"You can always bring someone else along. But do come!" she smiled and left Hermione feeling trapped.

Hermione wasn't sure why she was going, she wasn't that afraid of refusing an invite and the last thing she ever wanted to do was meet Malfoy and his family. She would have to tell Astoria that she couldn't come after all. But supposedly due to a flu, Astoria didn't come to the Ministry all week, and Hermione was so absorbed in her own work it that it completely escaped her mind that there was a New Year's party she had to not-go to and she only realized it was New Year's Eve when Luna had appeared on her doorstep in her pine-needle dress. Hermione had almost forgotten that in frenzy (and following Harry's footsteps) she had asked Luna to come along with her, when Hermione had thought she might as well go. It was hard to imagine someone look beautiful in a full-sleeved dress made solely of pine-needles and a chain of snowflakes for earrings, but Luna did.

Hermione was sure Luna won't mind if she took her to Harry's party instead but Hermione felt a sense of guilt. She couldn't chicken out. How had Malfoy even agreed to a party like this?  
Hermione didn't have time to wonder, with Luna's reproach, Hermione hurriedly got dressed and soon she and Luna were standing outside Malfoy Manor.  
Wizards and Witches dressed in fashionable robes apparated around them and Hermione even recognized a few of her colleagues from the Ministry.  
How was this happening?

Dazzled by the flickering faeries that stuck to the door, Luna gently pulled Hermione along. Hermione remembered how Luna had been trapped here only a few years ago. She could only marvel at Luna's strength.  
Astoria opened the door to greet them and reveal more guests inside. The house looked completely different from the last time Hermione had been there. It was full of light and its ceiling had been altered into a large vaulted one. Lining the walls were bookshelves full of books and glass cases containing different artifacts. Velvet sofas lay around the room on an emerald carpet, circling a warm fire place. Overall, the house was extraordinarily luxurious, even if quite more than Hermione's taste.  
Astoria herself looked as bewitching and radiant as expected. She wore a ruby red robe with a silver embroidery and Hermione felt this night was getting too strange.

Sitting in a high-backed chair, robed in dark grey and black, and conversing with two men, was the familiar face of Draco Malfoy.  
As soon as he caught sight of Hermione enter with Luna at her side, his eyes widened tremendously and face turned a sickly pale color. He glanced back at his friends and gulped down an entire glass of firewhisky much faster than it should be.

Hermione smirked. Maybe this wouldn't be that bad after all.


End file.
